Habitat in a Bag (Journal #3)

In my previous entry, Living Things, I talked about a project that we started in class MSED 251 in which we put various things in our bag (shown below), wrapped them up in damp paper towel, put them in the window- and waited to see what would happen!

We made observations the first day about the things in our bag. The bean- would it grow? The popcorn kernel- would it grow? We guessed that the bean was living, and would grow with the water and sunlight. In contrast, we thought the popcorn kernel was just a product of a living thing, and would not grow.

Today, we opened up our bag!

We were greeted by the sight of mold, all over the bottom (inside) of our bag- which made some of us nervous! But, inside the bag we had some luck- we had some growth. Unexpected, even! We were right in saying that the bean was living and that it would grow. We, however, said that the popcorn was only a product of a living thing, and that it wouldn't grow. Well, it grew! Which, upon reflection, makes sense. It is a corn seed! The sprout is pictured below. 

This is are the items, plant life, etc., that we collected and observed. 

This is a week later when we opened up our bag- look at the growth! The beans specifically thrived in the plastic bag habitat.

Here is our popcorn kernel that we underestimated- it grew!

I think this experiment is interesting. A great way to really investigate what characteristics make a living thing. I think that sometimes it is easy to forget, or not realize, that things are living- even after being dormant!