By Professor Bubbles, your friendly frog scientist! 🐸🔬
Discover How Nature Keeps Itself Alive!
Have you ever wondered how plants and animals survive together in nature? 🌎
In this science experiment, we’ll build a mini-ecosystem inside a glass bottle — a tiny world that keeps itself alive! This hands-on project is perfect for curious kids who love nature, experiments, and watching how life works.
Let’s jump into the adventure with Professor Bubbles and discover how ecosystems recycle air, water, and nutrients all by themselves!
🧪 What You’ll Need
To create your own closed bottle garden, gather these simple materials:
- A large glass jar or plastic bottle with a lid or cork
- Small rocks or pebbles (for drainage)
- A bit of activated charcoal (optional – keeps it fresh)
- Some potting soil
- Moss, small ferns, or tiny plants
- A few small insects or a worm (optional, but fun to observe!)
- Water (a spray bottle works best)
- A spoon, stick, or tweezers for planting
🌱 Step-by-Step Instructions
- Build the base
Put a layer of small rocks or pebbles at the bottom of your bottle. This helps with drainage. - Add charcoal and soil
Sprinkle a thin layer of activated charcoal on top of the rocks, then add your potting soil. - Plant your mini-forest
Use a spoon or stick to plant your moss or small plants into the soil. Be gentle! - Add tiny creatures (optional)
If you’d like, add a small worm or bug to help keep your ecosystem healthy. - Water it
Spray a little bit of water over the plants – just enough to make the soil damp. - Seal it up and place it in light
Close the lid tightly and place your bottle garden in a bright spot, but not in direct sunlight. - Observe the magic!
Over the next days, you’ll see tiny drops of water form on the inside of the bottle.
Plants will grow, and your mini-ecosystem will stay alive on its own!
🌦️ The Science Behind It
Your bottle garden is a self-sustaining ecosystem. Here’s what’s happening inside:
- The Water Cycle: The water you added evaporates, condenses on the glass, and falls back down as “rain.”
- Photosynthesis: Plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make their own food — and release oxygen!
- Decomposition: Tiny organisms in the soil break down waste and return nutrients to the plants.
Together, these processes create a balanced environment that can last for months — or even years!
🔍 Try These Fun Variations
- 🌿 Open vs. closed: Leave one bottle open and another sealed. Which lasts longer?
- ☀️ Light vs. dark: Put one bottle near sunlight and one in shade. How does light affect plant growth?
- 🧫 Different soils: Try sand, clay, or compost and compare how your plants grow.
- 🪴 Add labels: Draw and label the water cycle, plant parts, and animals living inside.
📝 Observation Journal
Professor Bubbles says:
“Great scientists always write things down!”
Keep a little Ecosystem Journal where you can note:
- The date you built your garden
- Daily or weekly changes you see
- How much condensation forms
- How tall your plants grow
- When new leaves appear
You can even draw what you see! 🎨