Abstract
This study investigated the effects of growing green soybeans on preschool children's thinking about the growth process and life of plants. Five year old children (N=59) were asked to draw pictures of green soybeans and were interviewed before, during and after their 3-month experience growing beans. The main results were as follows. First, the experience had significant effects on children's understanding of the growth process, e.g. their representations of leaves and flowers at the respective stages of the growth process. Second, observations of roots and leaves in the early stages of the growth process had significant effects on children's thinking. Finally, the benefit of the experience generalized to in fluence children's ideas about the biology of sunflowers and trees.
