Growing Potato Eyes

Did you know that the bumpy blemishes on a potato that’s been on the store shelf too long are called the “eyes” of the potato? And that these “eyes” have nothing to do with sight and everything to do with reproduction of the potato plant.

Its a simple enough concept to understand. Potatoes are underground stems, not roots. So here’s a simple enough science project to watch how the stem grows. You will need about 5 potatoes, 5 brown lunch bags, 5 rubber bands to seal those lunch bags and a knife to cut the potatoes.

The first potato goes into the first brown bag and is sealed with a rubber band. The second potato is cut into two halves and placed into the second brown bag and sealed. The third potato is cut into three pieces and so on till the five bags have been sealed. Now place the brown bags in an area where they will not be disturbed and leave them that way for two weeks.

Once the time is up open out the sealed bags and check how many eyes grew on the potato pieces. Add the number of eyes in each bag irrespective of the number of pieces that the potato had been cut. What did you observe in this science experiment?  Write is all down to form your project.