Bean Sprout Science

What You Need:

• Water
• Paper and pencil
• Paper towels
• Baking sheet
• 3 types of bean seeds (mung, green, lima)

What You Do:

1. Give one of each bean to your child to observe, explaining that each bean has a little opening for water to go inside.
2. Have your little scientist lay a few stacked damp paper towels onto the baking sheet, and put the beans on top. Put a few more stacked damp paper towels on top of the beans. Set the baking sheet aside in a sunny place. Make sure this spot isn't too sunny, so the beans might get scorched.
3. Ask your child to write down some thoughts on a piece of paper. Have him predict the life cycle of a bean. How long will it take for it to fully sprout?
4. Each day, have your child re-wet the paper towels. Has anything changed in the beans?
5. At the end of a week, your scientist's beans will have likely sprouted! Otherwise, wait and keep observing.
6. When the beans have sprouted, ask your child about the little plants. Ask him what the purpose of a hard exterior is, what the seed needed to grow, and how plants outside grow.
7. You can take this fun project a little further and plant the seeds outside!