Agriculture plays a part in our every day lives and it is useful to learn and know about the environment around us. This science project will assess the growth rate of several different types of grass seed. It is suitable for 7th grade or 8th grade students but high school students in agriculture or horticulture classes may enjoy and benefit from doing this experiment.

Go your local lawn and garden store and pick up these items:

4 pots

Soil

Annual rye grass seed

Fescue grass seed

Blue grass seed

Bermuda or any other type of seed they may have available

Fertilizer

You will not need large quantities of any of these items so if you can buy a quarter of a pound of each or less just for your project it would be best. If you tell the people working at the store they may even have a little from an open bag that you could have especially if it is for school purposes. You will also not need much fertilizer.

Put each of your pots on a plate so that the water and soil do not drain all over your counter. If you have a few old aluminum pie plates they will work as well. Put soil into the pots and fill about 2/3 full. Then in each pot sprinkle a different grass seed. You can sprinkle at least a tablespoonful or two of the seed into the pot to make sure you have success. Sprinkle about 1/4 inch more soil on top of the seed.

Place all the pots in the same place with the same amount of light and temperature. Water each with about cup of water. If you can use a sprinkling can to lightly sprinkle the top of the soil to moisten that would be best. You do not want to soak the seeds and drown them.

Get some graph paper and each day for the next two weeks watch your pots. When you notice any germination note what type of seed it was and how much you see. Did only one blade of grass show up? Do you see many? Continue watching over the next few days to see if other varieties start to grow and how fast each one does.

Which grass seed germinated the fastest? Did any other seed pass up the first one when it started growing? This is a great science project for 7th grade 8th grade or high school students to learn about growing things.

Lesa Bolt is a contributor to http://scienceprojects.fetching.us