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Graphing the growth of our Garden Beans under different conditions


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Keywords: Graphing, gardening, online story book, predicting, experiment
Subject(s): Geography, Early Learning, Writing, Earth Science, Biology, Photography, Math
Grades K through 3
NETS-S Standard:
  • Communication and Collaboration
  • Research and Information Fluency
  • Digital Citizenship
  • Technology Operations and Concepts
View Full Text of Standards
School: Dehesa Elementary School, El Cajon, CA
Planned By: Earl Otte
Original Author: Earl Otte, El Cajon
Introduction: Ask the children how many of them have a height chart at home to measure their own growth?
Do a class Brainstorm on the whiteboard about what it takes to grow i.e what do their bodies need?

Follow up with a call for ideas on what plants need to grow - Sunlight, water and soil.
Explain that we are going to be creating an online book to help record the growth of their different bean plants

Give each student 3 bean seeds. Explain that one bean seed will get light and water, one will get water with no light and one will get water, light and soil. Ask them to predict which one they think will grow most successfully and make a recording of this prediction for the online book. Take pictures of children preparing the experiment. Children are to write their names on each container.
Set up their beans in to three groups and have the children take a photograph of each group.

Over the next 2-4 weeks have children take pictures and record their observations of what they see. Once the beans start growing, teach the children how to use a ruler to measure the length of the bean and to record it on a graph. Students to take pictures of their graphs.

Children to then work in groups of 5 to create a rough draft of book to be used online at little bird tales. Conclusion of book is to reflect on the accuracy of their predictions about the bean growth. Once draft is ready, students will record book online, using photos they have taken over the last 4 weeks.
Cross-Curriculum Ideas
Math - graphing, addition and subtraction (comparing rates of growth)
Geography - which countries grow the most beans, why? What do they do with them?
Biology - parts of a seed/parts of a flower
English - poems/stories on beans. Writing and recording predictions. Oral speech for online book
Follow-Up
Transplant successful seedlings to school garden. Harvest crop and make a salad, save seeds for next year.
Links: link to little bird tales
Materials: Digital Cameras, Point and Shoot, Digital Voice Recorders, Tripods
Other Items: 30 Been Seeds/cotton wool/ containers, $.50c each