What do plants need to survive?

Today we set up experiments to prove what plants need to grow. 

In class Mrs Waller helped us to work out six variables that plants need:

Water

Air

Soil

Heat

Light

Space

We discussed how to prove that these variables were essential for growth and decided to plant three carrot seedlings for each variable, giving each seedling differing amounts of that variable. For instance, the group that was testing for the necessity for water would plant one seedling with no water, one with a little water to keep the soil moist and one with lots of water.

We measured the height of the seedlings at the beginning of the experiment and labelled each one to show the variable we were measuring and the height in centimetres.

Here we are preparing the pots:

We will report back at the end of this half term with our findings.

The perimeter of a paper bag (Thursday April 27th 2017)

We have been looking at the difference between area and perimeter this week and today we put our learning into practice by making a paper bag with a perimeter of 1m. This means that the side of the bag had to measure a total of 1 metre all the way around the edges.

Here are some examples to inspire us...

Here we are, work in progress...this challenge was trickier than it seemed at first!

Here are some completed bags. But did the perimeter measure 1m?

What worked best - trial and error or careful planning? Have a go and see what you think!