Choosing Plant Seeds for Botany Lessons
How to Decide What to Grow for Classroom Science Projects
Mar 15, 2009
There are many things to consider when choosing what type of plants to grow from seeds in the classroom. Will students be taking the seedlings home or planting them in a school plot? How much space is available in the classroom or school greenhouse? Will the supplies be purchased from school funds or donated? Another group of questions involve which plant seeds will support the lesson objectives.
How Lesson Objectives Affect Seed Choice
Learning how to grow plants from seeds and watching how they develop is a popular botany science project to do in the classroom with elementary age students. Many of the botany lesson objectives involve scientific methods such as measuring and observing changes under various growing conditions. For these experiments, it is best for students to use the same seeds from the same packet for making their observations and measurements. However, the student lab groups may choose to use different plants and compare the results between groups to show how the various plants behave given the same set of growing environments.
Some lesson objectives involve results such as each student starting a plant to take home or life lessons such as how to nurture a plant. If the learning outcome is to have a plant to take home, choose easy to grow annuals and have students plant multiple seeds in case some do not germinate. For life lesson outcomes a teacher could consider vegetable container gardening for seed to table experiences or having students replant when germination fails.
Other lesson objectives might include community involvement, such as growing a victory garden at the school. For these objectives seed choices need to be varied since the outcome is to provide a variety of vegetables.
How to Decide Which Seeds to Grow
Once the lesson objectives are determined it is time to decide which seeds will best support them. Seed packets have germination times and approximate times from seedling to harvest or bloom listed on the back which will help with time considerations. Make sure the seeds are kept dry and cool until planted. Seeds that have become moldy or moist should be replaced.
Annuals are considered the easiest to grow. Vegetables are also easy and provide students with a food bearing plant to take home. Herbs depend on what type they are, annual or perennial. Perennials require more long term care and might be a viable choice for botany projects that are community based or involve multiple semesters.
Most seed choices support the various science lesson objectives. Teachers need to consider the lesson objectives and how the types of plants and their germination and growth needs best support those objectives.
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