Experiment

The other day Marissa had an experiment for school. She was supposed to plant some seeds in two pots. One pot was to be put in a brown paper bag and one left out in the sun. Ben did the same thing last year but I was living in Alaska with a green house full of pots, potting soil and the like. It was easy to plant some grass seed and cover one with a bag and leave one out. The only issue for him was that it was winter time so we didn't get much sun... Anyway, for Marissa I decided we could sprout beans. I know it works and I have some so that's what we did. I put a paper towel in the jar, placed the beans around the edge so we could see them, added some water and then I put one baby food jar (yes, I brought some with me for just a thing like this) in a brown bag and put it in the window. The other one I just placed in the window. She was excited to see what would happen. The idea is that the one in the bag won't grow as well because of the lack of sun. The next day I had to add water to the jar that was in the window but not to the one in the bag. The same thing happened the next day. I think it was the third day that we saw the sprouts - in the jar that was in the bag, not in the other one. Then the leaves came up. There are different theories as to why this happened: Ben said it was because the bag made it dark so the beans thought they were in dirt because the dirt makes it dark; Dad and Mom agree that the one in the window just didn't stay moist enough because I didn't cover the jar. Anyway, she was very excited to plant them. The only problem is... I don't really have any pots and, believe it or not, the dirt around the house isn't really soil. I did get a Ragu jar (that's another compulsive behavior of mine) and put the dirt in and planted the sprouting beans but I'm not sure they'll survive. I guess that'll be another experiment in and of itself.

This was taken before she opened the bag.

She was very surprised to feel the leaves and happy to see that they were actually growing.