Fast Plant Necklace
Students and teachers can make a Fast Plant necklace by poking a hole through the top of a microcentrifuge tube, filling it with soil and planting a seed. String or ribbon can be used to complete the necklace. This is an easy activity for students at all levels. Special materials: microcentrifuge tubes, string, soil, Fast Plants seed. Source: Medfield High School.

Pressing Plants
Students can create a long-lasting record of their plant studies by pressing an entire Fast Plant or individual plant parts. Place the specimen between two pieces of white construction paper; enclose the paper inside two pieces of cardboard. Use strong rubber bands to press the cardboard together for several days. Dry pressed plants can be mounted in a journal or framed behind glass. Press Fast Plants of various ages to create a life cycle graph! This is an easy activity appropriate for students at all levels. Special materials: cardboard, Fast Plants. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Greeting Cards
Press plants as described in the "Pressing Plants" activity. Students can make greeting cards using the plants they have pressed. Cotyledons from 6-day-old Fast Plants make wonderful Valentine's Day cards because they are heart-shaped. A Shamrock for St. Patrick's Day can be made from three cotyledons. Cards for parents and friends can be decorated with dried Fast Plant flowers. This is an easy activity for students of all ages. Source: Medfield High School.

Fast Plant Crossword
Use vocabulary words that relate to Fast Plants to construct a crossword puzzle. The clues can be definitions of terms, descriptions of plant parts or functions, and so on. For younger students, use pictures instead of written clues. This is an easy activity for students at all levels. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Flowers in Art
Students of all ages can benefit from examination and drawing of Fast Plants. Students are often very careful observers when drawing their own renditions of their own plants. This is an easy activity for students at the elementary and middle school levels. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

A wide variety of wicking materials can be satisfactory for growing Fast Plants—but which one is the best? Students can try to answer this question by comparing plant growth in systems with wicks made of cotton string, paper towel, or polyester felt. This is an easy experiment appropriate for middle and high school students. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Science Buddies
High school or middle school students become amazing resources for the teaching of elementary science. Teaching the younger students how to grow Fast Plants is an excellent way to try out this type of mentoring program. Source: Medfield High School.

Botanical Peer Education
"Expert" Fast Plant growers are a valuable resource for busy high school teachers. Students can be responsible for preparing the lab from start to finish by growing the necessary experimental plants, preparing the equipment and written materials, and cleaning up after class. They can even teach the lab! This is most appropriate for advanced high school and college students. Source: Medfield High School.

Fast Plant Coloring Book
Students of all ages love coloring and can learn basic plant anatomy by coloring black-line drawings of Fast Plants. Students in art classes can be asked to create the line drawings. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Fast Plants and Modeling
Modeling can be a wonderful way to explain plant structure and function to students. A model is a visual, hand-on way to study something that students may have difficulty understanding. Use models to learn to plant and to investigate seed and flower structures. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

A Planting Model
Fast Plants are very small and expensive to waste. Young students who have never planted seeds before may benefit from practicing the procedure with a film can, shredded paper for soil, and dried peas for seeds. This activity is appropriate for elementary students. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Seed Sponge Model
Cut a household sponge into a heart-shaped embryo. Wet the sponge, roll it into a ball, tightly wrap string around it, and let it dry for 24 hours. When the sponge is completely dry, remove the string and wrap a layer of lens or tissue paper around it to simulate the seed coat. When the "seed" is dropped into water, students can see it imbibe water and break out of the seed coat. This is an easy activity appropriate for students at all levels. Special materials: sponge, string, tissue paper. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Flower Model
Working in groups of 3 or 4, students can design and build a flower model. Encourage students to think about the purpose of each structure and to choose a building material that reflects that function. This is an easy activity for elementary and middle school students. Special materials: whatever you can think of! Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Fast Plants Show
Students present their plants to their classmates, telling the class what is special about their plants. Prizes could be awarded for the tallest plant, the shortest plant, the best name, the longest leaf, the greatest number of leaves, or anything else that students can think of. This is an easy activity most appropriate for elementary students. Source: Medfield High School.

Fast Plant Salad
Add Fast Plant leaves to a tossed salad and have students describe the taste. This is an easy activity for students at all levels. Source: Medfield High School.

Fast Plant Journal
Students can keep a daily or weekly log of activities and plant development in their journals. Entries can be written or drawn as pictures. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Fast Plants Word Search
Use Fast Plants terminology to generate a word search puzzle for students. This is an easy activity for elementary and middle school students. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

Fast Plant Timeline
Instead of the traditional historical timeline, students can make a life cycle timeline by marking off the days and drawing pictures to indicate the changes occurring over the life of their plants. This easy activity is appropriate for students at all levels. Source: Wisconsin Fast Plants.

"That's MY Fast Plant!"
Teachers can use Fast Plants to help students learn the importance of making and recording good observations. When the plants are just starting to flower, ask students to make a list of characteristics of their plant. Label the bottoms of the pots with student names, remove any other name tags from the pots, and mix them up. Can students find their own plants? This is a moderately difficult activity appropriate for middle and high school students. Source: Medfield High School.

Learning to Graph Using Fast Plants
Students can observe the relationship between plant age and height by cutting strips of ribbon to the same length as the height of plants at several ages. The ages of the plants can be written on the ribbons. The ribbons can then be taped above an axis drawn on a piece of paper or the chalkboard to make a graph of age vs. height. This is an easy activity appropriate for elementary and middle school students. Special materials: ribbon, Fast Plants at different ages (e.g., 3-day-old, 7-day-old, 10-day-old, and 14-day-old). Source: Medfield High School.

"What Do You Mean, Magnify?"
Students work in groups of four to observe and draw the same plant. Each student is given a specific part of the plant to draw—leaves, stem, flowers, seed pods, etc.—and are told to magnify their parts by 200%. Each student should cut out the drawing and the group then tries to fit them together to make one plant. Examine whether each student's perception of the magnification is the same as the others in the group. This is a moderately difficult activity, appropriate for middle and high school students. Source: Medfield High School.