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Reproduction of Living Things Activity for Kids
Vegetable Cloning DIY
- Duration: 10-15 min
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: $0 to $10
Learn how to clone a vegetable from just a stem!
Material List
- 1Romaine lettuce stalk
- 1Drinking glass
- 1Cutting knife
- 1Cup of water
- Adult supervision
Instructions
- 1Carefully cut off the top of the lettuce, leaving just a few centimeters of the stem. Lettuce that still has a little brown on the bottom of the stem works best.
- 2Place the cut stem in a glass, and fill it with water until it reaches halfway up the stem.
- 3Place the glass by a windowsill and change the water each day. New leaves will begin to grow in a matter of days.
How It Works
Some plants, like the romaine lettuce, reproduce sexually, BUT they can also reproduce asexually. When you leave the stem of the lettuce in water for a couple of days, you see that it grows new leaves. This works because lettuce cells can reproduce by copying their DNA and splitting to make new cells! This is a form of asexual reproduction. Farmers can use this property of lettuce for making copies of their best plants.
Check out the Full Lesson on Reproduction of Living Things
In this lesson, we learn that:
- Reproduction transfers genetic information from parents to their offspring.
- Some organisms reproduce sexually and others reproduce asexually.
- Animals engage in special behaviors to increase their odds of reproduction.
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