SCIENCE

Science investigation - Do different varieties of beans grow at different rates?

What do you think?

We are trying to find out if this is true. Currently, we are observing, measuring and analysing the growth rates of three different varieties of beans in our class. The children are growing out a Dwarf bean (Green), a Butter bean (Yellow) and a Purple King (Purple of course). The popular hypothesis was that the Purple King would grow the largest but the children were stunned to discover that in fact, the Dwarf bean was the first to germinate and begin growing. All the other varieties have now germinated and it will be interesting to find out which one will be the largest after 10 days. 

Room 17 had to discuss all of the variables they would keep the same to ensure that they would be carrying out a fair test. We also found out that there haven’t always been different varieties of vegetables. New varieties are constantly being discovered. Originally there would have been only one or two types of beans but the varieties would have increased over thousands of generations as a result of natural selection and in more recent years, selective breeding on the part of humans. We found out that the Pink Lady apple was developed in Western Australia in the 1970s and is one of the most popular apples in our class.

 

The next part is to think about why some beans grow at faster rates than others??? Could it have something to do with climate? Or soil type? Growing conditions or selective breeding? We’ll have to find out. There is one thing for sure, there’s lots of science to be discovered from the humble vegetable patch.