How to keep a bean plant observation journal
Beans sprout fast and change in ways you can see, which is why so many classes grow them. This guide covers what to measure each day, how to write it down, and how to turn it into a report.
What an observation journal is
An observation journal is a dated record of the same plant over many days.
One entry says little. Two weeks of entries show how fast it grows. That only works if you measure the same way every time.
The bean plant life cycle
Plant and water the seed and it swells, then a root comes out. The seed coat splits, two seed leaves appear, and true leaves grow between them. As the true leaves get bigger, the seed leaves wither.
A Korean grade 4 science worksheet (Mirae-N) counts planting day as day 1: the bean swells on day 3 to 5, the root shows on day 5 to 7, seed leaves on day 7 to 10, true leaves on day 10 to 12, and the seed leaves wither by day 12 to 15.
Later the stem thickens, flowers open, and when they drop, pods form. The beans inside are seeds that sprout again when planted.
Korea's Rural Development Administration puts sowing to fresh-bean harvest at about 60 days for field-grown beans. A pot on a windowsill may differ.
What this journal records
Each entry has six boxes: date, one photo, height (cm), number of leaves, life cycle stage, and one line of notes. Only the date is required.
Height takes 0 to 500 with one decimal place. Leaves take whole numbers from 0 to 999. Anything outside that is caught before saving.
Measure the height on more than two days and the height chart appears. If you log the same day twice, the later height counts.
Stages are Planted, Sprouted, True leaves, Flowers, Pods and Seeds saved. The journal shows the latest stage you've picked. For plants that aren't beans, Pods is called Fruit.
Photos are shrunk to 1280 pixels on the long side and stored in this browser. They are never uploaded.
Measuring tips
Stand the ruler on the soil and measure to where the stem ends. Mixing stem-tip days with leaf-tip days makes a bumpy chart.
Shoot from the same spot and angle each day. Put the ruler in the photo and the picture shows the height too.
Use the one line for things numbers miss: colour, smell, how it feels, what changed since yesterday.
Growing more than one? Name each (Bean 1, Bean 2). If you're testing something, like light versus dark, put it in the name.
Turning it into a report
Tap Print observation report on the journal page to get one A4 sheet: dates, method, a table by date, the height chart, up to four photos and the day each stage was first seen.
What I learned and What I still wonder are left blank so your child can write them by hand.
We chose the headings. If your school sent a template, copy the answers across.
Common problems
My entries are gone: clearing site data or using a private window removes them. Export before you switch devices.
Moving to a new device: the export file includes photos. Import it on the new device and it merges, without making duplicates.
A photo won't save: the browser may be out of storage. The page tells you when saving fails.
Will it remind me? No. There are no notifications. You decide how often to write.