Growing With Science Blog

Pssst, Kids:  Mother’s Day is coming up soon. Are you looking for science and art projects that will be nice Mother’s Day presents? Here are a few ideas. I would love to hear yours.

1.    Decorate a pot and plant a flower, houseplant or herb for your mother to enjoy.
Gather:

• Clay pot of appropriate size
• Potting soil and water
• Pot paint (preferred) or acrylic craft paint, acrylic paint markers (optional).
• Plant or seeds

Decorate the pot by painting it and let it dry. The acrylic paint dries fairly quickly so you can make designs. Use acrylic paint markers to add words such as “Happy Mother’s Day.”

Cover the hole in the bottom of the pot with a small stone and fill pot about half way with potting soil, if you are using a plant purchased from a nursery. Add your plant and fill remaining soil around it. If you started some cuttings from the plant propagation activity, they would look great in a pot, too.

If you want, you can also start with seeds. Fill the pot with potting soil and plant the seeds according to the instructions on the package. Here are some chives and basil plants just starting.

Remember to keep your plants watered while you are waiting for that special day.

2.    Dye some white flowers her favorite color.
Gather:

• Vases – one for each color you are going to test
• Water
• White flowers such as carnations
• Food coloring

Place the white flowers in vases of water. If an adult is helping you, ask him or her to cut the stem at an angle, preferable under water, so the flowers can take up water easily. Add at least 20 drops of food coloring to each vase, a different color in each one. If you have enough vases and flowers, leave one without food coloring to use as a control. Watch and see what happens for about a day. Compare whether all the colors worked the same. Place all the flowers together in a pretty vase of fresh water and present to your mother.

3.    Make a picture or card of pressed flowers.
Did you press any flowers with a plant press from the activity about weeds? Use the flowers to make a nice flower bouquet that your mother can enjoy for a long time.

There are several ways to use pressed flowers. The easiest is to glue the flowers to a piece of paper with white glue. Use a small paint brush and/or tweezers to help move the delicate dried plants. If you have some, special paper glue used in paper arts works best.

Doesn’t this dried flower look a bit like a hummingbird?
You can also use contact and wax paper, as suggested at About.com.

4.    Draw a picture of her favorite flower and/or animal.
Use markers or crayons to draw a picture for your mom. If you want to try something new, try using watercolor markers to draw small circles for the body and head of animals and then add details with a black sharpie.

Mix pressed plants and drawings for a neat effect.

5.    Make a card using the paper you made in the recycled paper activity.

6. Write your mom a poem. Mothers love poems!

For inspiration fold an origami animal, like the butterfly at the bottom of this post, and then write your poem on it.

These are just a few suggestions. If you have more, please let us know.

Wherever and whenever you plant a garden, you have to expect some “plants out of place” or weeds to follow. Before you rip them out, remember weeds aren’t always just nuisances. Spend some time getting to know weeds and you might find they have something to offer.

Weed Activities with Children

1.    Plant identification

One of the first things young children need to learn when they grow a garden is how to identify the various vegetables, flowers and weeds. I’m sure we all have heard family stories about the time the beets got weeded out and the dandelions were left behind. Identifying tiny seedlings is no mean feat, and so learning to observe and identify plant characteristics is key.

Start pointing out things like leaf color, shape, the presence of hairs on the stems, etc. Did you know the name for dandelion comes from “teeth of the lion” and refers to the jagged teeth on the leaf margin? A simple fact like that might help a child remember what a dandelion looks like. Let some of the weeds go to flower so you can see what the entire plant cycle looks like. (Try not to let it spread seeds though).

Save some samples of plants from the garden by pressing them. A leaf press is a useful piece of equipment for studying plants, and also for pressing flowers for crafts. An old telephone book can be a handy substitute if you don’t have a press, or check the Texas Junior Naturalists How to Make a Plant Press.

Identify the plants you find by looking in plant books or online for identification guides. Don’t be afraid to ask for expert help. Many counties have Master Gardener programs. The Master Gardeners are volunteers who help answer gardening questions for the public.

2.    How do weeds measure up to vegetables and flowers?

Compare growth rates of various plants, including weeds by measuring the height of the plants at weekly intervals with a yardstick or tape measure. Take pictures. How many inches does the weed grow versus the garden plant? Which one emerges from the ground first? Which one is ready to flower first? Do you think the weeds might shade the vegetables or compete with them for food and water? Why or why not?

3. Are weeds useful at all?

A weed is basically a plant out of place. If it was growing somewhere besides your garden, it might have some uses. How might a weed be useful?

I think most people have heard of eating dandelion greens. In fact, I saw some dandelion greens at the store the other day for $4.99 a pound. What about garlic mustard? The Brooklyn Botanical Garden has this article Garlic Mustard—A Palatable Pest about how to identify the weed and suggestions for preparing it.

My maternal grandmother studied botany. She often ate plants others considered to be weeds, because she knew how to accurately identify plants and knew which ones were edible at which stages. Just remember, certain weeds are poisonous, so learn from an expert before trying to eat anything new.

Notice whether any wildlife in the area feeds on the plants your think of as weeds. My dad was going to mow a patch of common milkweeds last summer but I showed him how insects feed on the leaves. I heard reports that later in the summer he was proudly showing the neighbors all the beautiful butterflies visiting “his” milkweed patch.

As long as they aren’t introduced/invasive species, many so-called weeds are really wildflowers in disguise.

Did you try the germination tests from last week? Did you get anything that looks like this?

If you enjoyed sprouting seeds, then here are a few more ideas for seed germination science experiments.

Before starting, however, let’s take a minute and think about how information from experiments on seeds and germination might be important. Last week we discussed how you could use a germination test to see if old seed you have lying around is still viable (able to make new plants). Plant scientists interested in maintaining rare plants, entrusted with ensuring maximum yields from crop plants and/or concerned with storing seeds in seed banks for the future study the changes in seeds over time and how to slow or prevent loss of viability. These scientists subject seeds to different conditions and examine the physical and chemical changes that occur as time passes. Their findings indicate that factors such as temperature, moisture, diseases, and chemical pollutants can all change seed viability.

Experiment 1. Effect of temperature on seeds and seed germination

Think of ways to test whether temperature effects seed sprouting or percent germination.

Example A:
Choose seeds of one kind of plant to test. (Note: Be sure to check the seed package carefully. Some seeds are treated with pesticides). Randomly assign the seeds to three categories. With the help of an adult, place 1/3 of the seeds on a paper towel or on a microwave safe plate and heat in a microwave on high for thirty seconds. Allow seeds, especially oily ones, to cool before touching them.  Add 1/3 of the seeds in a freezer overnight in a freezer. Leave the remaining seeds at room temperature. Then perform a germination test as described last week. Count the number of seeds that germinated for each treatment and divide by the total of seeds (for that treatment) to obtain the percent germinated. If there are no differences, how can you modify this test?

Example B:
Choose seeds of one kind of plant and divide into three groups. Prepare each group for germination as discussed last week. Place one group in the fridge, one at room temperature and one in a sunny window or other place warmer than room temperature. Make sure they all stay moist but not too wet. Record the number of days until germination and also the percent germination (see Example B.)

Experiment 2. Rate of germination of seeds from different plants
Collect seeds from different plants (two examples of plants with vastly different germination times are radishes and carrots.) Perform the germination test as described last week.

Note:  because radishes and carrots have different germination times, it is possible to plant them together in a garden. The radishes will come up and mature first. The slower carrots will benefit from the extra room left behind as the radishes are pulled out and used.

Experiment 3. Effect of chemicals or pollutants on seed germination

Use your imagination to come up with treatments that may increase or decrease germination. Think about things like salts (may be present in the water or soil), nutrients, and/or antimicrobial treatments that might change how many seeds of a given batch germinate.

As always, we would love to hear your ideas and/or results.

For further study:
Seeds and Plants (Science Workbook) by Diane O’Hanesian, John Jones (Illustrator)
Grades 2-3

This book does a good job with terminology and also showing concrete, real world examples. Better done than many science books for the younger set.

The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds: A Book About How Living Things Grow by Joanna Cole (Author), John Speirs (Illustrator), Bruce Degan (Illustrator)

And a treat for adults interested in science and plants:
Seed to Seed: The Secret Life of Plants by Nicholas Harberd