A Hands-on Approach to Environmental Quality
Richard R. MacMahon, Ph.D.
Your feedback is important to us!
After viewing our curriculum units, please take a few minutes to help us understand how the units, which were created by public school teachers, may be useful to others.
Give FeedbackSeed Germination and Growth - Lesson plan #2
This exercise teaches the student a great deal about how a plant grows and is an extremely easy experiment to set up and successfully complete.
MATERIALS: (per pupil)
-
6 containers Ð small paper cups (4 oz) or 1/2 egg carton
-
6 cabbage seeds, any type (may be any cabbage relatives, such as broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, Chinese cabbage, turnips, etc.. Radish is not recommended for this exercise.
-
6 glass dishes with covers, with wet cotton and black construction paper on the bottom. Plastic Petrie dishes work well if deep enough.
-
Soil obtained from teacher. Also obtain 2 radish seeds.
PROCEDURE for EACH STUDENT:
-
1. Label each container with your name or initials. Punch a hole in the bottom of each container with a pencil.
-
2. Put soil in your cups or egg carton sections until the container is 3/4 full.
-
3. Place one seed in each cup or compartment of the egg carton. Push the seed down into the soil 1/4 inch and just cover it with soil.
-
4. Water the soil. Dampen it but do not get it too wet. Excess water will drain from the hole you punched in the bottom of the container.
-
5. Place your cups of planted seeds on the table under the lights. The lights are set on a fourteen-hour time cycle by an automatic timer.
-
6. Make daily observations of your container. When you see the plant emerging above ground, make daily pencil sketches of the plant and measure its height. Your initial measurements should be in millimeters, later in centimeters.
-
7. Graph the height of the plant over a two week period of time. How is the growth rate related to the size of the plant?
PROCEDURE for the ENTIRE CLASS:
-
1. Work in groups of fours or fives. Obtain a dish prepared by your teacher with black construction paper on the bottom.
-
2. Place a total of ten radish seeds in the dish, evenly spaced. Place the dish in a dark environment (a drawer works well).
-
3. Observe your dish daily. Keep a journal. Without opening the dish if possible, observe what happens as the radish seeds germinate. Try to measure the length of the plant each day. Make a sketch.
-
4. Research what you have seen. What is the white material around the roots? What are the various parts of the emerging plant named?