Can Plants Grow in Rocks?

Ms. Tompkins went on a trip to Australia and while she was there she saw these trees growing in the rocks! She showed the picture to the students and asked them what they thought or wondered about this picture. 

Many students thought that there was soil under the rocks for the roots to go to. 

The students thought that plants can grow in rocks. We decided to test this idea. A small group of students were excited about this and decided to plant pumpkin seeds in some rocks. They said they needed to add water and put the seeds near the window to get sun. 

S.P described the process we took. "We put the rocks in and then we put in seeds and we pushed it in and then it’s going to grow. First it will grow roots, then a flower, then a green pumpkin, then a big orange pumpkin with a stem"

Ms.Tompkins- What do you think will happen?

M.W- it will grow up big to the sky

E.K- the seed in the rocks, a big one

A.A- what will happen to my seeds is... the seeds go over the rocks, it goes down in the rocks

A.Bh- if it doesn’t have any soil in it, it can't grow in the rocks, if we put it outside in the sun it could grow in the sun

Ms. Tompkins- there is no soil, do you think they will grow?

A.A- no soil, no grow

S.P- no, it’s not going to grow

M.W- yes they will grow with rocks

A.Bh- we need water

The students then said we needed to add water. So we poured some water into the cups.

M.W- it’s going to grow big

A.A- water is going to grow it, but we didn’t have soil

S.P- it’s not going to grow because it has no soil and we didn’t put it where it can get sun and air from the window. We should put them in the window 

We moved the cups into the window.

We became excited when the sprouts started to grow in the rocks!

M.W's stem began to grow

A.A- the plant is growing

A.B- A.Bh's is growing a little bit very slow, and M.W's is growing very fast

Ms. Tompkins- What do plants need to grow?

A.Bh- water, soil, sun and seeds

Ms. Tompkins- We planted ours without soil, how is it growing?

T.K- it has seeds

A.M- because of the rocks, the rocks are inside this water and sun. The seeds help the plant grow without soil because somedays me and my mom get a plant with rocks and it grows and grows 

Z.H- it will turn into a green pumpkin and then an orange pumpkin after

D.D- maybe the roots and the water and sun and the seed is helping it grow

A.B- in M.W's, the seed is opening and its attached to the stem

D.S- it's growing up and it will make orange pumpkin

D.K- it's growing from the rocks because some rocks, there must be nutrients inside the rocks to grow 

A.A- the plant is growing bigger and bigger 

V.A- how about it's going to grow more pumpkins

A.Bh- we talked about growing in the sun. Some grow slow and some plants grow fast.

We have been able to make some really detailed observations about the plants. Students were able to make comparisons between the different plants and share their theories about why certain seeds sprouted and others didn't. 

What amazing learning has come from a simple picture taken on vacation!