NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 10 .1 How Do Plants Grow? — In-text Questions
Book page 13810 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Look around your neighbourhood. Have you observed any changes in a plant during its life span?
Answer
Yes. A plant changes continuously through its life span. A neem or a money plant that you pass every day looks quite different after a few months.
A tiny seedling with two small leaves becomes a leafy plant.
The number of leaves and branches keeps increasing.
The height increases and the stem becomes thick and woody in trees.
Old leaves turn yellow and fall; new green leaves take their place.
In the right season the plant flowers, then bears fruits and seeds.
Try This: pick one plant near your home and photograph or sketch it on the first day of every month for a year. Your own record will show its whole life span in twelve pictures.
Q2.
What do you think causes these changes? Discuss with your friends and provide your explanation as well.
Answer
These changes happen because the plant is making food and using it to build new parts. Four things supply what is needed:
Sunlight — the energy source for making food.
Water — taken up by the roots; used in food-making and to keep the plant firm.
Air — supplies carbon dioxide, the raw material that becomes the plant's food.
Minerals from the soil — important nutrients that the roots absorb along with water.
The four explanations the children in the book give — water, sunlight, food from the soil through the roots, and 'something else' — are all sensible hypotheses. Two of them (water and sunlight) are tested in Activity 10.1. The third one needs correction: roots do not take food from the soil; they take water and minerals. The plant makes its own food in the leaves.
Why a discussion is asked for: in science, an explanation is only a starting point. It becomes knowledge when an experiment is designed to test it — which is exactly what Activity 10.1 does.
Q3.
I think, maybe, ________ plays some role!
Answer
The blank can be filled in several correct ways. The strongest answers, and how you could test each one, are:
Fill the blank with
Why it is a good guess
How you could test it
Air (carbon dioxide)
Plants are surrounded by air all the time
Enclose one leaf with caustic soda, which absorbs carbon dioxide — Activity 10.4
Minerals in the soil
Plants in rich garden soil grow better than in sand
Grow similar saplings in garden soil and in washed sand, water both equally
Warmth / temperature
Plants grow faster in some seasons than others
Keep identical potted plants in a warm and a cool place, both in light
Green colour of leaves
Almost all growing plants are green
Do the iodine test on green and non-green patches of the same leaf — Activity 10.3
Sample answer: "I think, maybe, air plays some role!" — and the book proves this right in Activity 10.4, where the part of the leaf kept away from carbon dioxide makes no starch.