 your results
Sent in by:
Anastasia of TX
It's a tiny environment!
- 2 liter soda bottle, cut in half
- gallon-size resealable storage bag
- pebbles
- potting soil
- seeds - grass, beans, or whatever you have available
- water
- Check with a grown-up before you begin this.
- A biome is an ecological community, like a rainforest, desert, or prairie.
- Here's a way that you can experiment with how plants grow in different environments. It's a biome in a baggie. Here's how to make one.
- First, pour pebbles into the bottom half of the soda bottle. The pebbles should be about a half an inch deep.
- Then, pour some potting soil over the pebbles. Your biome should have about twice as much soil as pebbles.
- Now, to plant the seeds. Make a trench down the center of the soil that's as deep as your fingernails.
- Then sprinkle a pinch of seeds in the trench.
- Cover it up with the soil.
- Water the soil just until you see the water collect at the bottom of the pebbles.
- Put the biome in a plastic bag and seal it.
- Now, you've created an environment for your plants. You won't need to water your seeds again because the water will recycle itself. The roots of the plant absorb the water and the water travels up the stem to all the parts of the plant. When the water gets to the leaves, some of it evaporates. Some water also evaporates from the soil. The evaporated water forms drops on the bag. This is called condensation. The condensation then falls back down to the ground, like rain. This is called precipitation. This is the water cycle-evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
- Put your biome in a sunny place and in about three to four days your plants should start growing. The cool thing about a biome in a baggie is that everything your plants need is there. It's got water, nutrients from the soil, air from the bag, and it makes food from the sun.
Now, here's how you can experiment with your biome in a baggie. Make a few different biomes and change the amount of light and water they get. This way you can see how your plants grow in different environments. A rainforest is a hot, wet climate but doesn't have a lot of light. A desert is hot and dry and doesn't have much water. A prairie has medium amounts of light and water. Eventually your plants are going to run out of carbon dioxide. Do some research and find out what you would need to keep your biome in a baggie going for a long time. Visit your local library or ask your parent or teacher for help. Then, send your discoveries to ZOOM.
Marcus, age 8 of NM wrote:
i did it and it worked.
Stephanie of Santa Clarita, CA wrote:
Nothing happened. I did this project last tuesday and it is thursday in the next week.
Makayla, age 12 of Whittier, CA wrote:
i used grass seeds and it worked very well. it took about 3-4 days for my seeds to get germinated and then it started to grow!! this was a science project and I had fun doing it.
Lollie of MS wrote:
This project is great with bean plants. Try simulating the different biomes, it's a great science fair project! Just make sure you give the plants a while to grow.
Gayathri of Coimbatore, India wrote:
It was cool. I loved it very much. I will try it again.
Deacon, age 8 of Lubbock, TX wrote:
I did this experiment with my mom at our science museum. We used aquapod water bottles (the ones that are shaped like a rain drop). We did the rocks and the dirt, then we used popsicle sticks to put pincussion plants in. They grew and covered the whole dirt. You could see the water on the bottle and tap the bottle to make it rain. It was GREAT. I love stuff like this. I will keep watching for more.
Justin, age 12 of New York, NY wrote:
it worked my plant grew perfect and all I had to do was water it once
Krithika, age 12 of London wrote:
My sunflower seed grew so quickly.
Michaela, age 10 of Greenville, PA wrote:
this worked out great! I did one bag with flowers and one bag with string beans. the flowers came up first, however the beans grew fastest and bloomed first. I did this with my friend for our fourth grade science fair project
Daisy, age 11 of Post Falls, ID wrote:
it worked really well, we had to do a forest biome and this was a big halp we had to do an activity with the class and this is the one I chose, it was really fun too my class also.
Vanessa, age 12 of Ridgewood, NY wrote:
Well when I first tried it the first day nothing happen. But the next day my deciuos plant grew. 2cm in. Its a very fun project.
Canttelle wrote:
I did this as a science fair project. I made the biomes with different amounts of water to symbolize the different biomes I chose (tundra, deciduous forest, rainforest, grassland). I gave them each different amounts of sunlight and heat, too. The project was a lot of fun to do, and everyone loved it.
Alysia, age 11 of Ridgewood, NY wrote:
I did a rainforest biome and after 3 days my grass grew about 2 inches!
Zoe, age 14 of Summerton, SC wrote:
When I made the biome in a baggie, my plant lived. This project is great.
Taylor, age 9 of Brunswick, OH wrote:
I put crickets in the bag and everything is still living. The crickets are loud.
Angie, age 12 of Vancouver, BC wrote:
I did this project with my class, and my and partner and I were assigned to tundra, so we usually kept it in the fridge. After two weeks, grass started to sprout high and tall, but the kidney bean died.
Tanisha, age 10 of Flushing, NY wrote:
Well I got the biome in the baggie and now I'm just waiting for them to sprout. I did a few different beans and my dad made them germinate even before I put them in the baggie. I made this my science project. I hope it grows fast!
Danny, age 15 of Port Charlotte, FL wrote:
When I finished planting the seeds, it started sprouting in about 1 day! The plant was actually growing pretty fast. It was about 4 inches high by the 5th day!
Christina wrote:
I did biome in a baggie. I waited two days and nothing really happened so I'm just going to wait and see what happens.
Clifford, age 11 of Killeen, TX wrote:
I tried this with with marygolds and it worked really well. By the seventh day it had 11 sprouts. I had tons of fun.
Kayla & Jessica of Randolph, NJ wrote:
It grew alot when we put it in sun, but when we put it with less sun, it took a longer peiriod of time.
Kristi, age 9 of Naperville, IL wrote:
It was so cool, I experimented with this thing and the roots started growing. It didn't work as well with the desert environment though.
Nadiyah, age 9 of Richmond Hill, NY wrote:
Well I found out that the rain forest grew the best, the plains grew the second best, and of course the desert did not grow at all.
Rachel wrote:
I didn't have a big enough bag to fit around my container, so I put it on the top of it. My plants started to sprout in four days!
Kaitlyn, age 9 of Edmonds, WA wrote:
It still hasn't grown yet and I was wondering if I did it wrong. I started it about six days ago and it hasn't grown. How long does it usually take?
Austin, age 13 of Senatobia, MS wrote:
I got very good results. It was a very fun experiments. It has been growing for almost 3 weeks now.
Sean, age 13 of Meriden, CT wrote:
I did not do the experiment yet but, after the show, (the first time I wacth the whole show) I went on the internet and looked at bio shperes. The biggest one was in AZ and it failed and they had to let air in. The two people that lived there were in there for two years!!! Any way at the end of the experiment that was shown, they asked to find a way to keep the biome in a baggie "runing by it self"and for a while. I found that if you add a carbon dixcide breathing animal like a brim shrip, they eat the algey from the waste they make and the sun "make" the algey grow. I hope you show this on the show so that other who were tring to find the anwser would be able to find it out. Looking forward to the next show!
Sara, age 13 of Tucson, AZ wrote:
Well, I didn't actually do it. But I live in Tucson, Arizona (a desert) and I need to make a few suggestions about the experiment on the show with the desert biome. See, the reason no grass grew in the desert biome was you used the wrong type of grass. The normal kind you find in lawns dosen't grow naturally here, you'd need to use on that dose or it isn't a proper experiment. Also, the 'sand' wasn't really too authentic. It was more playground sand than what we have, which is a little of that mixed with really dry dirt. Thanks for listening.
Ingrid of Los Angeles, CA wrote:
I did the boime in a baggie for 2 days and it didn't grow nothing, so I'm just going to wait and see.
Bria, age 10 of Wyoming, MI wrote:
It worked just as I planned. I did the rainforest, the desert, and just everyday land. I gave ther rain forest plenty of water, the desert no water and the everyday land enough water to survive. The rainforest grew the most then everyday and the desert didnt grow at all!
Kaitlin, age 12 of Davenport, IA wrote:
I put sand in one, a banana peel in another and one had A LOT of water. Modeling the rainforest, the prairie and the desert. The Prairie with the banana peel grew the best. This is an awesome projeuct and I did it for my school's science competition.
Cheryel, age 11 of Queens, NY wrote:
When I tried this experiment I first used 2 in. of pebbles and 4 in. of soil. I filled the biome with water until I saw the biome hit the rocks and so far... IT NEVER GREW! But I think it needs more time.
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