Below are ideas for extending this topic beyond the activity & exploration which you just completed.

• Lesson Assessment and Answer Key
• Reading: "When a Tree Falls"
• Activity: How to Train a Bean Plant
• Video: Time lapse video of a year in the forest
• Video: A third grader wondered, "What will happen if...?"
• Distance Learning: Time Lapse of Grass Growing

In this Mystery, we showed photos of a bean plant that we grew here at Mystery Science. We planted the bean in a cardboard box with a hole in it. The bean grew toward the light, snaking its way toward the hole to escape the dark box.

You can duplicate this experiment in your classroom. Just follow these detailed instructions on the website of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

In less than three minutes, this amazing video shows your students how a forest changes over the course of a year. This can be used as an interactive classroom exercise in observation. Ask students to raise their hands when they know what season it is in the forest. Stop the video when enough hands are up, then ask students to explain what clues tell them the season.

Third grader Cameron Wright wondered what a plant would do if she moved the light shining on it. So she decided to experiment.

She got a plant light, planted some peas, and set up a camera to take a picture every 2 minutes. Every 12 hours, she moved the light from one side of the plant to the other. Then she put the pictures together to make a sped up video.

What do you think the video shows? What does the plant do?

Discuss, then watch Cameron's video.

Instead of growing Grass Heads, you can try this substitute activity!

Show this time-lapse video of grass seeds growing. [5 seconds = 1 day in real time]

Ask your students to answer the following questions:

• What happens in the dirt on Day 3 and Day 4?
• What happens on Day 5 and Day 6?

Have students draw what they notice.