Growing Plants: seeds and soil

Get your hands dirty and find out what plants need to grow and live.

Students investigate the different parts of a plant - seeds, leaves, roots and flowers - and discover the lifecycle of an Australian flowering plant.

Students will also plant a native Australian seed to grow as a take-home experiment and answer the questions:

• What do these seeds need to grow?
• How long did it take to germinate?
• Did all the seeds grow at once or were some slower?
• How many of the seeds that I planted actually grew?
• Do the first leaves of the germinating plant look the same or different to the adult plant I saw in the Gardens?

Seeds chosen for this activity are suitable for the Canberra climate and will be small-to-medium plants when fully grown.

Australian Curriculum connections

Foundation

• AC9SFU01: Observe external features of plants and animals and describe ways they can be grouped based on these features.

Year 1

• AC9S1U01: Identify the basic needs of plants and animals, including air, water, food or shelter, and describe how the places they live meet those needs.
• AC9S1U02: Describe daily and seasonal changes in the environment and explore how these changes affect everyday life.