Pea head people!

Activity

Grow a full head of 'pea shoot hair' with this quick germinating seed and enjoy eating the fresh, new shoots as a healthy snack.

  • Estimated time: 15 minutes
  • Location: Indoors
  • School term: All year round
  • Level of experience: No experience needed
  • Subject(s): Science, Art&DT

Learning objectives

  • Grow a seed
  • Understand a seed's requirements for growth
  • Taste a new vegetable
  • Nurture and care for a growing plant

Preparation

Make a collection of materials to grow seeds in, such as hot drinks containers with lids - some are actually compostible. Find out what your collected cups are made of.

How can we be more environmentally friendly when buying take-away hot drinks?

Think about the requirements of a seed for growth and look at how well suited cups with lids are for this purpose.

Equipment

  • Recycled 'hot drinks cups' and lids (preferably biodegradeable)
  • Compost
  • Pea seeds
  • Coloured pens

Step by step

  1. Take a recycled hot drinks cup with the lid
  2. Make holes in the bottom of the cup with a sharp pencil
  3. Decorate one side of the cup with a face
  4. Fill the cup almost to the top with compost
  5. Push dried peas into the surface of the compost, close together
  6. Cover the peas with compost
  7. Water - until it comes out of the bottom of the cup
  8. Put the lid on and leave on a cool windowsill
  9. Check everyday until you see shoots, then remove the lid
  10. Stand the cup in the lid, on a sunny windowsill
  11. When the shoots are about 5cm long either use scissors or snap them off carefully with your fingers 
  12. Eat the shoots as a snack, or add them to a salad.

Hints & tips

  • Buy dried marrow fat peas from the supermarket for this project for cost-saving.
  • When you harvest make sure that you leave some of the green shoots and leaves, as the plant will need these to grow more delicious shoots for you to pick in a few days time.
  • Peas are so fast and easy to grow that you could use them for many different science growing projects.