Fava Bean Experiment

        Prior to beginning "Project: plant need experiments" with my 1st and 2nd graders I administered a pre-test and pulled from the rest of the Plant Needs chapter. This meant giving a little intro on my field whiteboard and playing the plant-spacing game with one of my groups and the needs relay with my other group. These games took 20+ minutes and I definitely recommend rehearsing them and being clear to the kids about the point they make.

October: measuring fava sprouts in a test row

        To begin the project my supervisor guest-led an intro to the scientific method using the magic gate game. My supervisor and I agreed it was beyond them and not worth repeating with my other group.  By this point we'd spent about three one-hour classes on the needs chapter (per group), including the unrelated garden tasks we were also up to. 

An experimental fava bean patch

        With the aid of many leading questions, my students decided to test how much space fava beans prefer and whether weeds interfere with their growth. Volunteer Ryan and I helped them plant three rows at three different depths; two rows comparing three beans per hole to one per hole; and a row in weeds next to a row not in weeds. Over the next three weeks we semi-regularly counted the number of sprouts and measured the tallest sprout in each row. The latter isn't a great index but was all I could manage before being upstaged by worms. Because of small sample sizes and the slower-than-expected bean growth our results would be statistically insignificant and -more importantly- were not obvious to the kids!
       Next time I'd do one -not two- experiments per whole class, give the plants as much time as possible to grow, and make sure every row is marked colorfully and communicatively. Scientific failure aside, showing a number of the kids how to measure in inches -for the very first time in their lives- felt significant.  
       Update two weeks later: today Erik exclaimed, "Look! More than one fava can grow from one hole!" He had missed several classes and was discovering the answer to his own previously unvoiced question. It was a reminder to me that simpler experimental questions (with the same physical set-up) yield clearer results. Of course this result did not boost the point that plants need space but that's part of what made it interesting.