Student activites from the Teachers' Guide

As well as directions for the teacher, there are numerous student activities in the Teacher's Manual. In previous Tomatosphere Projects, teachers have asked us to identify student activities, in addition to the germination experiment which is the central piece of the Tomatosphere Project.

For each grade the principal investigation involves student observation of the germination process over a period of 3-4 weeks. Students should graph their results. Masters for the graphing of results can be found in the "Observations" section associated with each of the grade groupings.

The introduction has a Reading Selection related to Exploring Space for each of the three grade groupings (2-4, 5-7, and 8-10), followed by questions for students to consider.

In addition, you will find below a list of activities, organized by grade, that you can consider for implementation along with the germination experiment. Note that all classes are different; reading levels will vary greatly among schools, within a grade level, and in the class. Some of these activities will need teacher assistance for implementation.

Grades 2-4

Topic Description Location
Transplanting Can be done indoors or outdoors Extension Ideas
Tomatoes and Temperature Sketching, brainstorming, preparing a recipe book All About Tomatoes
Tomatoes are Flowering Plants Concentration Game, drawing, labelling, dissecting plants All About Tomatoes
Plan an Investigation Experiment for the best conditions for growth All About Tomatoes
Soil Sampler Building a soil sampler to analyze different types of soil Growing tomatoes on Mars
The Energy Trail Following the flow of energy Energy From the Sun
Lights Out The importance of light in the process of photosynthesis Energy From the Sun
Plant Vocabulary Word Scramble Glossary
Plant Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle Glossary

Grades 5-7

Topic Description Location
Transplanting Can be done indoors or outdoors Extension Ideas
Tomatoes and Temperature Sketching, brainstorming, preparing a recipe book All About Tomatoes
The Tomato Plant Dehydration of fruit, measurement of mass All About Tomatoes
What is there to eat? Menu preparation using astronaut's foods Space Travel
Plan an Investigation The importance of water vapour in the environment, group activity Space Travel
Convection Simulator Building a convection simulator Can we grow crops on Mars?
Plant Vocabulary Word Scramble Glossary
Plant Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle Glossary

Grades 8-10

Topic Description Location
Transplanting Can be done indoors or outdoors Extension Ideas
The Scientific Method An experiment on the effect of light on plant growth Extension Ideas
How Much Light? An investigation to examine the relationship between plant growth and light Plants and Light
Plan Ahead Growing tomato seedlings using only the natural light available Mars Agriculture
Simulated Martian Greenhouse An experiment to simulate the conditions for growth of plants on Mars in a greenhouse environment A Martian Greenhouse
Plant Vocabulary Word Scramble Glossary
Plant Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle Glossary