What Does a Plant Need to Grow?

Because we are learning about plants in science, we decided to do a science experiment.  We learned that plants need dirt, water, sun and air to grow healthy and green.  So we decided to try growing seeds without some of these important things.  

We grew without dirt:  In a cup all alone, in grass, in shale, in sand, in water and in rocks (all in the picture above).  Can you guess what might happen?

Here are the seeds that will get everything they need (above).

Would you believe it?  The seeds sprouted that we planted in shale and in rock, but not in the other cups.

We had a grade four student who is conducting a similar experiment with bean seeds come and show us his results.  How interesting!