Wednesday

Raven lays the ruler flat on the Windowsill beside four jars. Light with water, dark with water, light with no water, dark with no water.

Rocket points at the dry jars. "Those two look exactly like the day we set them up. Hard little seeds."

"What do you notice?" Raven says. "Nothing happened without water, light or no light."

Nova hovers over the ruler. "Measure before you decide," she says. "Numbers are better than guesses."

"Dark sprouts first," Rocket says, lifting the longest pale shoot gently against the ruler. "Fourteen centimeters!"

Raven writes it down. "Now the green ones. And count every leaf."

Today you collect the evidence. You measure height, count leaves and record color for every sprout in both watered jars.

Then you check the dry jars. The data goes in your table, and your explanation goes in your Windowsill Log.

Seeds rest in a state called dormancy until conditions are favorable. Favorable conditions can be as different as moisture, light or cold.

After heavy rains, many new seedlings emerge. Your dry jars show the other side: no water, no germination, whatever the light.

Both watered jars had the same kind of seed, so the genetic factor was the same. The environment was the only difference.

The crew's dark jar held taller, pale, floppy sprouts, and the light jar shorter, green, upright ones. Your own numbers are your evidence.

If your result was different, that is still data. Write down what you think might explain it.

Careful measuring. Tomorrow you read a textbook table of how plants respond to light, water and the size of their seeds.