Finding common interests with which to engage learners from different cultural backgrounds can be a challenge in any classroom. It is particularly so in an urban, English/Spanish dual-language immersion school, which draws a socioeconomically and linguistically diverse population of students from a wide geographic area. The curriculum design in the school emphasizes building background knowledge through real-life experiences using the Sheltered Instruction Observational Protocol (SIOP). SIOP was developed to make content material comprehensible for English language learners and includes an emphasis on key vocabulary, frequent interactions between students, hands-on activities, and language objectives in addition to content objectives. Requirements for plant growth are included in national, state, and local standards. The activity described in this article was planned to address the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) performance expectation 2-LS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow (NGSS Lead States 2013, p. 18; see Connecting to the Standards). The idea that plants depend on water and light to grow is a focus of this activity and part of NGSS disciplinary core idea LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystem. For the activity students explore the chia seed's nutritional value and the growth requirements for its sprouts.