| Explore | The embryo sprouts from the inside and starts to germinate. The radicle is the part that grows into roots. The cotyledon grows into leaves which are used for food storage. The epicotyl is the part of the stem above the cotyledon, and the hypocotyl is the part of the stem below the cotyledon. Flowering plants are classified as monocotyledons (monocots) or dicotyledons (dicots) based on how many cotyledons they have. Dicots have two, monocots have one. |
|---|---|
| Research Question | What pea seed germinates and then grows the best? Is it a sanded down seed, nicked seed, or an untouched seed? (not really untouched, just not "damaged") |
| Predictions | The sanded down seeds will germinate first, and grow the best. |
| Experimental Design | To set up our experiment we used CD cases with little box graphs, and put our five nicked ones in one, our five sanded down in another, and the five control in another. We put the seeds on the top line of the fourth box, and we folded the top of the napkin five times to make it thick enough to keep the seeds in place. The end of the napkin was hanging out so that it could suck up the water. We then put each CD case in a separate stand, and put those into little plastic bins that we filled with 10 mL of water each, but we're changing it to 15. Our control is the undamaged seeds. The variables we will keep constant is the amount of water, and when we water the seeds. Right now it will be every other day. Another constant variable is the location of the CD seed cases, and the height they are lined up at. We are measuring and observing which seed germinates first, and then grows the best. |
| Conclusion | Our claim is that for the best seed germination, or the fastest, sanded down pea seeds are the way to go. If you are looking for one with good growth, unscarred pea seeds are the way to go. We think that the sanded down pea seeds germinate the fastest because they have no seed coat, and so the embryo can easily start sprouting. We think that the nicked pea seeds grow the best because they only have a small nick in the seed coat, and while allowing the embryo to grow out more, there is still enough seed coat to protect the seed. After setting up the experiment, and watering our seeds, the next day there were three sanded down seeds that had sprouted, one nicked seed that had sprouted, and no unscarred seeds had sprouted. At the end of our experiment, the average of the final length of the unscarred seeds (roots) was 5.75 cm, nicked was 4.9 cm, and the sanded down was 4 cm. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | Live Oak School |
| Session | Fall 2018 |
| About this Project | This group did an exceptional job with communicating their project to their mentor, and following through with feedback provided by both their mentor and teacher. They planned and recorded their ideas very thoughtfully and scientifically, and showed a lot of growth in designing and carrying out a scientific investigation. This team consistently communicated with their mentor, keeping up the lines of communication through every stage of their project. They took great care to consistently design, execute, and communicate their investigation with precision. |