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

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

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.

Weekday: $8.25 per student
Weekend: not available

1 hour