Monday 28 January 2008

Unplugged Project - Egg Cartons

Before I start on this week's Unplugged Project I've an update on last weeks tooth experiment. By mid week I noticed mould floating on the top of the glass of coke. Yuck! Certainly not what I want on my kitchen windowsill! I guess on reflection I should have put it somewhere dark as the light probably contributed to the growth of mould.



I braved the mould and retrieved the tooth which was smaller still and quite soft around the edges. It was very dark brown. Hermione refused to touch it. To be honest she didn't want to go within five feet of it.



This week the project was on egg cartons. Whenever I come across an egg carton (rarely as I don't buy eggs) I save it to give some of our eggs away. So, having no cartons I decided we would do something with the inner packaging instead. Hmmm, so what to do with egg shells?

We decided in the end to plant four half shells with four different seeds to see if they all grew at the same time. We soaked some alfalfa seeds, sunflower seeds, grass seed and green lentils in water over night. I thought this would make them germinate faster - an important consideration when tryng to maintain the interest of a six year old. We then labelled each shell, placed in a ball of moist cotton wool and sprinkled the seeds on top.

I'm pleased to say that the choice of seeds was good. The whole thing worked out really well. By the second day the alfalfa seeds had started to sprout (on the left of the picture).



By the third day the green lentils were sprouting.



By the fourth day the sunflower seeds had sign of tiny leaves.



I must confess that at this point there was still no sign of the grass seeds doing anything so I added more water and placed them in the airing cupboard overnight. Thankfully come morning there were small signs of life!



Hermione and I both really enjoyed this activity. Hermione questioned the household about which seed they thought would germinate first, and if she were to think that things grow at the same rate she certainly knows that not to be the case now!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a lovely idea! I would never have thought of planting seeds in eggshells. I am so glad that they all sprouted and did not disappoint.

By the way, I really enjoy it when people take a theme in a "new direction." It makes it even more interesting!

Gottfredsen said...

Wow what a cool project. Great job. Oh I agree with your daughter, that tooth was pretty gross. Still it was a cool project to.

Lima said...

Great project idea, we have a whole bunch of seeds here too, I'm wondering if the boys would like to do something similar...

Interesting that your coke-tooth experiment went the same was as ours too (without the mould, lol!). I thought ours had gone wrong as so many people said it would just dissolve so its nice to have someone else get the same results!

Claire said...

Ah but Linda, did you get a dead fly too? I only just noticed that floating on the top of the coke when I posted the picture on here, lol

Anonymous said...

http://4kidsandadog-amanda.blogspot.com/

Have soemthing for you

We love growing seeds here too

Claire said...

Thank you very much Amanda! I've never had an award before.

I know the whole blog business can become very time consuming - time which could possibly be spent in more constructive ways :-) I hope you achieve what you set out to and hopefully you won't stay away forever. Take care.

Claire
x

Andree said...

what a great idea! I wish, now, that I taught science for a day!

Wobblymoo said...

I'm suprised the grass seeds were last :)