- Materials
- Four sealable plastic baggies
- Four soft, white, absorbent paper towels
- Water
- Metric tape measure/ruler
- Four varieties of differently sized seeds (vegetables,
fruits, or flowers)
- Potting soil
- Small flowerpots or cartons
- Procedure
- Fold each paper towel in quarters. Moisten each towel
generously, but not dripping.
- Place a seed from each variety inside the fold of the
moist towel, so that the towel provides a moist blanket for
the seed.
- Place each towel/seed combination into a separate bag
and seal the bag tightly. Make sure you remember which seed
went into which bag.
- Each day for at least a week, observe and measure your
seed's root growth by carefully opening the bag and gently
unfolding the towel. Use a metric tape or ruler to measure
the longest root growth.
- Keep a table of your data.
- After a week or so, plant the seeds in soil and let them
continue their life cycle.
- Chart and analyze the root growth data.
- Conclusions
- You should use a variety of seeds so that students can
observe the difference between monocots and dicots. Bean
seeds are good dicots. Ordinary turfgrass seeds are good
monocots, but you can try any seed variety you like.
- Extension Ideas
- If the potted seeds grow well, consider planting the
plants outside in a garden where you'll be able to track the
plant's continuing life cycle.
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