How to Grow Pinto Beans With Mirrors

When teaching elementary-aged students about plant life or botany, it can be helpful to conduct a hands-on experiment that will demonstrate to them what plants require in order to grow properly. For example, you can show students that plants need sunlight in order to grow by growing a pinto bean using mirrors to direct sunlight to a pinto bean trapped in a box. Once the bean sprouts, it will use the mirrored light to develop into a pinto bean plant.

Dried pinto beans
Clear plastic cup
Soil
Water
2 mirrors
Masking tape
Scissors
Cardboard box

Instructions

- 1
  Fill a clear plastic cup three-fourths full of soil.
- 2
  Poke your finger 1 inch into the soil.
- 3
  Place a dried pinto bean into the hole, and cover it with more soil.
- 4
  Pour 1/2 cup of water into the cup.
- 5
  Cut a small hole into one side of the box, and place the box in direct sunlight.
- 6
  Tape two mirrors together in a 120-degree angle.
- 7
  Tape the mirrors inside the cardboard box, against one of the inside corners. Arrange them so one mirror catches light coming in through the hole and bounces it to the second mirror to send down the boxes length.
- 8
  Place the cup into the cardboard box in the path of the light coming from the mirror.
- 9
  Close the box, allowing the only light coming in to be from the small hole.
- 10
  Add 1/2 cup of water to the pinto bean every three days.
- 11
  After a couple weeks you will see how the mirrors allow the light to reach the plant in order to allow it to grow.

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