YEARS K–6 IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM
Further investigations by the Capstone Kids
By Tony Nolan; Ryley Nolan Aged 9 (Year 3); Flynn Nolan Aged 6 (Year 1);
Grace Patterson Aged 9 (Year 3); James Patterson Aged 6 (Kindergarten)
This article is about two science projects the Capstone kids have
recently undertaken. Two of our youngest kids, Flynn Nolan and
James Patterson, undertook a project to see if plants are stronger
than rock. Two of our older kids, Ryley Nolan and Grace Patterson,
undertook experiments with Chromamathic, to do mathematics
with data from motion-tracking sensors.
The first project was inspired by a TV program called One
Strange Rock, episode (7) ‘Terraform’, at about 21 minutes into
the program, where the program shows a time-lapse video of
plant roots moving pieces of stone. This seemed like an easy
project to do, so Flynn decided to work with small light rocks,
while James decided to work with much heavier rocks.
Figure 2: James’ large pebbles experiment
James describes his project
to grow. I checked on the seeds almost every day, and added This is what I have grown. I am trying to show that plants can grow
around rocks, sort of through them, by doing this experiment. I
planted some bird seeds into cotton wool in a container. The bird
seeds should sprout to be like trees growing in the bush. The
cotton wool is the same as dirt in the bush that trees might grow
in. I put river rocks from the garden on the cotton wool around the
container to be like large rocks in the bush but on a small scale. I
watered the seeds in the cotton wool to act like rain. A few weeks
later there were a few sprouts and the cotton wool started to turn
green. Then it rained, and the container flooded, so we poured
some of the rain out and left the container in the sun outside. We
kept going because the rain is the same as a flood in the bush.
Our seeds kept growing! This shows that if it floods then seeds
get more water, so floods can wash seeds to different places,
and the the seeds can still grow. I have learnt that trees can grow
in rocky areas like they have in my experiment.
to grow very slowly, and they grew between the pebbles. As the Summary
end of the experiment, a bunch of stones had been lifted up in a Both projects were successfully completed, and both students
were able to observe how the plants did in fact move the pebbles
and stones.
Figure 1: Flynn’s small pebbles experiment
Flynn describes his project:
I wanted to see if the TV program was right, and I could get
plants to move pebbles. I asked my dad for something to plant
the seeds in, and we found a biscuit jar. I grabbed some Finch
bird seed, and put it in the jar. Then I covered the seeds with
small pebbles of Perlite (white stone). I then added water, and
left it to sit in the sun. In a few days some of the seeds started
some water every time the seeds looked dry. The seeds started
grass got bigger, it started to move some of the stones. At the
small pile.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 4