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Overview: Students will observe different kinds of seeds and identify the major parts of a seed.
Booklink: Seeds and More Seeds * by Milecent E. Selsam, Harper and Row Publishers, 1959. ISBN 595322
Objective: Children will observe, classify, measure, and describe a variety of seeds.
Science Processes and Content: Processes-observing, measuring, recording data, predicting, inferring, and comparing. Content-characteristics of organisms, life cycle of plants, parts of a seed, and structure and function of a seed.
National Science Education Standards: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (3) Life Science, (5) Science and Technology
Materials: Book Seeds and More Seeds, small cups- one per group of three or four students, assorted seeds: corn, lima beans, garbanzo beans, sunflowers, black-eyed peas, and kidney beans, magnifying lenses, balances, teddy bear weights, and AIMS hand outs.
Procedure:
Note: This activity was developed from AIMS, Primarily Plants, 1990.
1. Give the students an assortment of seeds. Mix the seeds together so that the students are given a representative sample.
2. Place the students in groups of 3-4 and give each group a small cupful of seeds.
3. Have the students estimate how many seeds are in the cup.
4. Give each group a copy of the hand out “Seed Sort.”
5. The students will dump the cup of seeds onto the middle of the paper and sort the seeds into kinds and put them into the smaller circles.
6. A record should be made of the name and the number of seeds in the circle.
7. Then have the students add the sets to get the total number of seeds in the cup.
8. Have the students use the magnifying lenses to look closely at the seeds. What color are they? Are there any that have two colors? The students can record their answers on the hand out, “Observing Seeds.”
9. Ask the students: “What are the shapes of the seeds?” Have them record by drawing the shapes of the seeds in the shape column.
10. Have the students guess how many seeds it will take to cover the line. Lay the seeds on the line, count, and record the number.
11. The students will use the handout “Comparing Seeds” as a guide to weigh the seeds. They should estimate how many seeds it will take to balance one teddy bear. Then, after weighing the seeds, they record their results. At the bottom of the page, record by coloring the graph.
Extension: Plant the seeds.
a. See if the students can identify which plant came from which seed.
b. Which seed sprouted first?
c. Which seed grew into plants that have the longest leaves?
d. How do the plants differ?
Related Books:
*The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, Scholastic, 1987. ISBN 0-59-4266-8
The Empty Pot by Demi, Henry Holt and Company, 1990. ISBN 0-805-1217-6
*The Tiny Seed can be used if you cannot find the book, Seeds and More Seeds.
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