The 1st and 2nd graders of Mid-City’s Prescott School of Enriched Sciences (the sprouts, the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders are the seedlings…) watched these radish babies grow from seed to seedling and last week we discovered why root vegetables sometimes grow hugging each other…like these carrots…
Once roots start to grow and grow under the soil and the plants aren’t “thinned” then they start growing into one another competing for nutrients and water. Students understand that plants need room to grow because they understand that whatever is happening below is also happening above: if roots are growing and developing below, then the plant above the soil will start to grow up or sideways or wherever it’s growing, but it will grow.
(not thinned)
(after thinning)