Planting Seeds, Growing Minds From Marfa Levine, a teacher at Falls City Elementary School in Falls City, Oregon: "My students are having a good time using a curriculum by Kathryn Donald from the Oregon Association of Nurserymen, 'Planting Seeds, Growing Minds'. The kids put several alfalfa seeds in a baggie with a wet piece of paper toweling and taped them in different places around the room. It's fun to check out the sprouts each day. They're keeping records of the growth. We also created a class chart with several seeds in a variety of baggie environments: no water, a lot of water, salty water, biodegradable soapy water, dirt and no water, etc. The kids estimated whether or not they thought the seeds would grow in the different environments and recorded the estimates next to the baggie on the chart. We were surprised by some of the results. I'm reading aloud the biography of George Washington Carver by Eva Moore, which gives us a chance to discuss a variety of subjects and to reinforce what the kids are leaning about plants, botany and soil."