Growing a sweet potato in a mason jar is a great long-term experiment, that’s suitable for students of all ages. Observe the growing process of the sweet potato over a period of weeks to months. Record its growth, living conditions, and the amount of water the potato consumes over time. In our experiment, the potato did not have access to natural light and was given 8 oz of water per week. We conducted our experiment for a total of 9 weeks.
All you need is a sweet potato, a mason jar, 3-4 toothpicks, and water.
You can download the companion worksheet to use in your classroom here.
We got this idea for the wonderful book, Mason Jar Science, by Jonathan Adolf. You can find this book and many more like them by visiting our STEM Book List.
