Kristen Wideen (@MrsWideen) has been a fabulous instructor with us at the past two iPad Summits, so we’re thrilled to help her promote her new global project. This post first appeared on her blog.

Are you interested in participating in a collaborative global project? Do you have to cover the changes plants undergo in a complete life cycle, identify the parts used to produce specific products, and or describe how these products are produced in your curriculum?  If your answer is yes, this is the project for you!

The idea behind the project is to have your students collaborating with other classes, documenting and sharing their seed growth on a central wiki. The purpose of the wiki is to connect classrooms and help share common and different experiences.

Instructions For The Project

Please plant your bean seeds on April 22nd, 2014

1. Soak the beans, or seeds of your choice in water overnight.
2. Have students stuff an open jar or a plastic baggie with a moistened paper towel or cotton balls.
3. Have them place three beans between the glass/baggie and towel, and moisten as needed.
4. Post pictures, video and or audio to the wikki to share with the other classes.
5. Ask students to observe: on the third day, the seed may be soft and fat. On the fourth day, the skin may loosen and the root may begin to appear. On the sixth day, root hairs may begin to sprout from the big root. On the eighth day, pale shoots may sprout, representing the beginning of a green plant. When the leaves and roots are well developed, have the students plant the bean plant in a pot of soil.
6. Have your students record all of their observation over the next few weeks.

Documenting Your Seed Growth

There are many ways to document your seed growth. A few suggestions are:

• A written plant journal
• Take a picture each day, use Skitch (or a similar program) to label and discuss the changes
• Use the Book Creator App for a multi-media creation tool filled with audio, video, text and images from your students.
• Have each student create a personal seed journal on Explain Everything (or a similar program), creating a new page each day of the project.
• Create a class Observation Book.
• Take a picture each day for a stop motion project with an app like iStopMotion or iMotionHD for the iPad.
• However you choose to record your results please post your progress at least twice a week on the wiki so other classes can view your progress.

Items that must be included in your observations:

• The temperature that day.
• The date or growth day number
• If the seed has started to sprout, the measurement of how tall the sprout is using millimeters and or centimeters

Information to include on your wiki page:

• Your location and School name
• The grade of your students
• Your classroom Twitter handle if you have one

How to Sign Up

Once you fill in the Google Form, I will create a page for your class on the left hand side of the project wiki. You will need a log in to edit the wiki. When you try to edit the page, it will ask you to fill in a form asking for permission to join. Once I approve it, you will be able to edit your page. The page I create for you is where you will add your observations. You may add text, images, audio and video to your page. Please feel free to be as creative as you wish.

If you have any questions, you can contact me on Twitter @mrswideen or email me at [email protected].

* A special thank you to Sarah Soltauheller for allowing me to duplicate her project from 2 years ago.

Interested in learning about more exciting ways to use technology with elementary students? We have a great line up of Summer Workshops specific to K-5 students this summer!