Hi Tamara,

The National Research Council Canada suggest using beans, peas, radishes, or navy beans for that experiment. See link below.

Art

Here is a link that might be useful: Science Experiment

I've always found that cucumbers sprout fairly quickly on just damp paper towels. Since you're using black paper as "soil," that might help you out. Make sure the seed is on top of the paper instead of under it--they probably won't break the paper.

Don't buy seed in advance farther than a year or two if you decide to do this year after year--the germination rates go down as they get older. Even if you get an awesome deal on a thousand seeds, they probably won't work past four years or so. You'll have trouble getting even little roots to sprout.

That said, it's also a good idea to give each student two or three seeds for his/her bottle, in case one just doesn't for some reason. That happens too. With two or three per kid, you can be sure that everyone's will sprout.

And... are you seriously telling me that my high school is not the only one whose students are several pies short of a potluck? Heh. What do they mean, plants don't move? Sunflowers do. That's why they're called sunflowers--they move their heads to face the sun at all times. And if they base their definition of "alive" on whether or not it moves, then... well, by that logic, zombies are also alive, as is, say, moving machinery. ... Never mind. *shakes head*

--Rebekah, 15, Iowa