Designed for grades 5 through 7, this lab sheet walks your homeschooler through a controlled garden experiment comparing two plant groups: Group A grown alongside marigolds and Group B grown without. Students count and record pest numbers on their target plants every two to three days over a 21-day period, tracking aphids, caterpillars, beetles, or slugs in a structured data table that calculates the difference between groups. The hypothesis section asks students to predict whether marigolds will reduce pest counts before a single seed goes in the ground.

This growing marigolds pest repelling experiment works well as a standalone biology unit or within a broader botany or garden science study. Because it runs over several weeks, it naturally reinforces observation habits and data consistency, two skills your student demonstrates explicitly in the conclusion section by evaluating whether the results supported their original hypothesis. Extension ideas on the sheet invite testing different target plants or varying the number of marigolds planted, giving you room to extend the unit if your homeschooler wants to keep going.