Teach Plant Growth Through Virtual Labs

Teaching your students how to collect and analyze data while learning what healthy plants need to grow has never been easier or less messy! All it takes is an interactive virtual lab simulation.

Teach Plant Growth Through Virtual Labs

There are a lot of questions about plant growth for students to investigate. How do plants grow? How do plants eat? How does sunlight affect plant growth? Some of those questions can be difficult to answer with the limitations of environmental conditions at school, such as classrooms without windows for sunlight. And what about the time it takes to grow plants?

Plant growth experiments through virtual labs don’t have the restrictions of other types of investigations.That’s why plant growth virtual labs save the day.

Using Online Labs to Teach Plant Growth

Plants are an integral part of human and animal life, and having a basic understanding of how they grow is important. Online labs, such asplant growth experiments, allow students to see results within minutes that would otherwise take weeks.

Virtual labs likeExploreLearning Gizmosallow students to experiment and manipulate throughout the stages of plant growth.Simulations make it possible to manipulate environmental conditions and analyze outcomes.Students deduce the best conditions for growing plants and can even create their own experiments.

Growing Plants Gizmo

Many factors affect plant growth, from the amount of light, water levels, and soil additives.TheGrowing Plants Gizmosaves time and reduces materials while teaching students about controlled experiments.Students draw conclusions through learning objectives, including exploring the effects of light intensity, water levels, and soil additives on plant growth. Students determine what a seed needs to grow into a healthy plant, design a controlled experiment to investigate a question, collect data from multiple trials, and analyze data using tables and graphs.

TheGrowing PlantsGizmo was modeled to be as realistic as possible. With this virtual lab simulation, students can manipulate four variables: seed type (bean, tomato, or turnip), soil additives (compost and fertilizer), amount of water, and amount of light. Students can use the Gizmo to try to grow the biggest plants they can or to investigate the effect of each variable individually.

EveryGizmoincludes lesson planning materials, teacher guides, vocabulary, student worksheets, and assessment questions. Looking for even more ideas and information? Check out theEducator Resource Hub.

This detailed, interactive, online science simulation is the perfect option to investigate plant growth.

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