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The Seed

Epistemological question: Do seeds eat, drink, walk and grow?

Introduction
Seed plants are cultivated for their beauty and smells, as well as their importance
in the development of medicines. Plants also are the foundation of human diets
across the world. Many societies eat almost exclusively vegetarian fare and depend
solely on seed plants for their nutritional needs. Cereals, rich in carbohydrates,
provide the staple of any human diets. In addition, beans and nuts supply proteins.
Fats are derived from crushed seeds, as is the case for peanut and rapeseed (canola)
oils, of fruits such as olives.
A plant that simply produces and drops seed where it stands does not have as
much opportunity to expand the range of the species unless the seed are in some way
transported to new ground. Seed dispersal starts first with the fruit and whether it
stays on the mother plant and releases the seed (dehiscent fruit) or where the seed
stay within the fruit (non-dehiscent fruit) which then falls or is released from the
plant. Examples of dehiscent fruit are follicles, pods and capsules. Non-dehiscent
fruit would be characteristic of berries, drupes and nuts.
Relatively few seeds will sprout as soon as they mature. Even under ideal
conditions most seeds remain dormant for what is called rest period which varies
in duration in different plant groups. Rest periods are thought to be necessary for
certain chemical changes related to the ripening of the foods stored in the seed.
Seeds though dormant, are living organisms, and need favorable conditions to grow.
In this activity, we will investigate the anatomy of a seed that will eventually the
one responsible for forming a new plant.

Objectives:
The students will be able to:
1. Identify the different parts of the seed
2. Differentiate the monocot and dicot seed
3. Classify seeds according to their dispersal agent
4. Determine the changes in bean seed and corn seed after soaking in water
5. Understand the basic requirement for plant growth
Materials:

Mongo bean
Corn seed
Magnifying lens
Worksheet

Different kinds of seeds

Cardboard/illustration board
Bowl of water

PART I
Seed Anatomy
Procedure:
1. Get the mongo bean and and divide it into two.
2. Identify the parts using the magnifying lens.
3. Draw the seed based on your observations and label its parts (see note).
4. Identify whether it is a monocot or a dicot.
Note:
Seed coat (testa)- outermost layer of a seed
Radicle- the root portion of the embryo
Embryo- compromising a rudimentary plant with plumule, radicle and cotyledon
Plumule- the shoot portion of the embryo
Cotyledon- the first leaves of an embryo, may or may not resemble true leaves
Endosperm- nutritive tissue in seed formed within the embryo sac, maybe
absorbed by the seed before it matures
Figure 1. Mongo bean and Corn seed

1. How are they different?

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2. How are they the same?
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PART II
Seed Dispersal
Get the bags of different seeds. Identify the characteristics of the seeds according to
their physical appearance (e.g color, shape, size, whether it sticks to things, weight, etc.).
Record your observation in the table below and answer the guide questions.
Table 1. Dispersal of Seed
Seed
Characteristics

Dehiscent/non-dehiscent

Dispersal agent

Guide questions:
1. Did any of the seeds seem to have more than one dispersal agent? Why?
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2. Did the characteristics of the seeds affect the dispersal mechanism?
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3. What do you think that seed dispersal is important?
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PART III

Seed Germination
Procedure:
1. Get two plates or any flat surfaced object and placed 3-4 paper towels in each
surface.
2. Sprinkle water on set-up A while salt solution on set-up B.
3. Get 30 pieces of corn seed. And put 15 pieces in each set-up.
4. Visit the set-up daily to moisten up the paper towels with salt solutions and water.
5. Count the number of seeds that successfully germinated after 5 days and
determine the germination rate of each set-ups (See note). Record your
observations in the table below.
Note:
%germination= number of seeds that germinated in the set-up
Total number of seeds sown in the set-up

X 100

Table 2. Seed Germination Factor

Seed sprouted after 5 days

% germination

Set-up A
Set-up B
Guide questions:
1. What set-up has the least germination rate? Why?
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2. What set-up has the higher germination rate? Why?
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3. What plants need to survive? How does water salinity impact seed germination?
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4. At what point can we say that germination has been successful?
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Conclusions:

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