A gardening STEM activity for kids

Weather is warming up here in New England, and our gardening is too! Since we’re doing so much with seeds and planting, I decided to add in a kindergarten math activity for my five year old. We set up this gardening STEM activity for the kids to try out. It’s a common elementary science experiment project, but kids love it every time!

A gardening STEM activity for kids

This gardening STEM activity for kids is brought to you by Powerful Plants.

Gardening is the perfect match for charting and graphing lessons. Here’s a supply list for this project:

• 6-8 Seed Varieties
• Potting soil
• Containers or Seed Trays
• Tongue Depressors
• Rulers
• Paper or cardstock for charting
• Colored pencils (or crayons, or markers)
• 

Directions for setting up Powerful Plants:

1. We took the Powerful Plants seeds (remember these cool app-animated non-GMO seed packets?) and planted rows of several varieties into potting soil. We like using seedling trays so we can bring them in and out while the weather is still finicky.
2. Using the tongue depressors, we marked each variety so we’d be sure to know which was which!
3. Create a chart and a graph for recording information. The chart will list the date and day (Number 1, 2, 3) in columns, plus have a column for each seed.
4. For the graph, I taped a ruler to one edge of a piece of cardstock and drew one-inch rows across and columns down to form a grid(the 1″ rows is really important though – make sure to measure those out!). Each seed type we planted had a column (but then we planted more seeds and I doubled up!). I then photocopied a few times to have extras sheets (I have a two-year-old!).

Procedure for charting/graphing Powerful Plants:

Each day, we checked out our seed trays and recorded data on our charts. (Really, use these terms with your little kids: data, record, chart, graph, measure. It’s great math foundation). For several days, there was no growth, so we recorded zero across the board on our charts. Finally, on day five, our Brussel Sprouts popped up!

We measured the height of the seedling and recorded it on our chart. Each day as more seedlings emerged, we measured each type and recorded their new daily height.

Also every day, on the graph, we displayed the seed growth using different colors to record the growth of each seed type each day. (The daily color code was also recorded on the chart).

After ten days of recording data (the photos above show days 6 and 9), we took a look at our results!

Questions to accompany the Powerful Plant Lesson:

• Which seed(s) grew the tallest (most)?
• Which seed(s) grew the least?
• Which seed(s) took the longest to emerge?
• Which seeds grew about the same?
• Count how many seedlings emerged in the ten days.
• Count how many days till the first seedling appeared.
• Count how many days till the last seedling appeared.
• If using a ruler is new to your child, go over how to read inches (you may have to help out with the quarter inches, and we rounded up to the nearest quarter inch).

You could certainly continue charting and graphing for longer than ten days. We still are waiting for our carrots and pattypans to show up, so we are tracking them for a bit longer. However, ten days is enough for younger kids to see and record growth.

Charting and graphing plant growth gives kids a purpose to their seed planting and keeps them engaging in the growing process for a longer time.

My boys loved using the rulers to see how tall their plants grew each day! They can’t wait to get these seedlings into our prepared raised garden beds soon!

For our planting, we used Powerful Plants Non-GMO seeds. Powerful Plants are more than just amazing heirloom seeds. These “augmented reality” characters animate when you use their free app. Children can watch the plants come to life and teach them about each vegetable, give planting instructions, and encourage, eating plenty of fruits and veggies. My sons talk about the Pea animated a lot! I love the Dragon’s Tongue Bush Beans character!

The Powerful Plants free app on your phone or tablet will animate the characters on the seed packets. Point your device at the seed packet, and listen to Daucus Carrot tell you about his crisp sweetness, and how to plant him after the first frost. Butter Crunch Bibb Lettuce will instruct kids on the history behind the lettuce plant, going all the way back to the Egyptians. They’ll even learn about GMOs and the importance of eating their veggies!

Powerful Plants retail for $2.99 per seed packet, which is completely reasonable compared to other organic and heirloom seeds on the market (and their veggies don’t talk!). There are over 3 dozen seeds/plant characters to pick from to begin your garden

Check out their video for more information on these innovative non-GMO seeds for kids! Be sure to order now to get your seeds in the ground for this summer’s harvest!

Also, Powerful Plants is working with schools and educators to bring Powerful Plants to classrooms and fundraisers! 

This is a sponsored post brought to you by Powerful Plants. All opinions are my own.