To help get children outdoors during school time, we set up 2 experiments, which both involve spending time outdoors and learning about plants and the environment around them.
Around 100 schools have participated and we sent them everything they needed to carry out the experiments, this included seeds, compost and other items they may require.
To start with we want to educate children into what ‘soil’ is and what it is made up from. They will also be taught how to identify different soil types. In school they will identify the composition of their soil, and also their soil type and pH.
They will then run a germination trial, where the children will learn about what a seed needs to germinate, comparing water alone, soil and compost. Once the germination trial is complete they will then continue the trial on to a ‘growth’ experiment. Learning about how plants grow, what they need to grow but also how to carry out a fair trial. We incorporate science and maths into their experiments, teaching how to measure the volume of a plant and how to record the findings correctly.
Data gathered will be displayed alongside plants grown by the school children in our Chelsea garden. We have also included an exercise where the children are asked to spend 5 minutes outside, 60 seconds per sense and to record what they notice for each of their 5 senses.
We hope that the children can take their learnings home and show their parents how to test their soil and spend time out in a green space as a family.
