PLHS - Support for Learning

Growing Seeds

The secret of seeds

What is a seed?

This week we have looked more closely at seeds - what job do they do, what do they need to grow and what is their structure?

We planned an experiment to investigate what seeds need to grow using test tubes, cress seeds and a host of different conditions.

The pupils were encouraged to discuss what we might test or investigate - and they came up with the following…

Test Tube A     Dry seeds (nothing else)

Test Tube B     Dry seeds and dry soil

Test Tube C     Dry seeds and wet soil

Test Tube D    Dry seeds and wet cotton wool

Test Tube E    Dry seeds, wet cotton wool and oil on top

Test Tube F    Dry seed, wet soil and no light (foil round tube)

Test Tube G   Dry seed, wet soil, no light and cold (in fridge)

Photographs of this interesting investigation will appear here in due course - what will happen to each of the seeds and what will that tell us about what seeds need to grow? See the results sheet Miss Cleland made for us to record our findings in (Growing Seeds)

We also looked more closely at the structure of the seed. Inside the seed we discovered there is a food store. We also found out there is an embryo (baby) plant. Both are protected by a seed coat.

We found out that each of these special things (structures) had a special job (functions). We completed the worksheet made by Miss Cleland showing which structure did each function. See the attached file at the top of the page “The secret of seeds”.

We have also been busy planting our seeds - the sunflower seeds have already started to grow and are in a special box called a propagator. The strawberries, tomatoes and peppers have also been planted this week and we cannot wait to see how they grow!