Student Exploration: Seed Germination
Vocabulary: controlled experiment, germinate, hypothesis, mean, seed, trial, variable
Prior Knowledge Question (Do this BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
Plants that produce fruit or vegetables grow from seeds. Suppose you want to start a vegetable garden using seeds. How could you get the seeds to sprout?
You add water to the seeds and then after a couple of days the seeds begin to sprout. Once the seeds sprout you can put them in soil and make sure they are watered.
Gizmo Warm-up
Seeds are only able to sprout, or germinate, under the right conditions. The seeds of different species of plants need different amounts of light, temperatures, and moisture levels in order to germinate successfully.
In the Seed Germination Gizmo™, you will perform a series of experiments to determine the best conditions for germinating three different types of seeds.
Look at the DESCRIPTION tab. How many seeds are in the germination chamber? 100
Click Play (), and observe the SIMULATION pane.
What happened over the simulated five-day period?
How does the appearance of a seed on the SIMULATION pane change once the seed has sprouted
How many seeds sprouted?
How many seeds did not sprout?
Activity A:
Repeating Trials
Get the Gizmo ready:
Click Reset ().
Select the BAR CHART tab and turn on Show numerical values.
Question: Why is it important to repeat an experiment multiple times?
Collect data: Each time you run an experiment with the Gizmo, you complete a trial. A trial is single time that you conduct an experiment.
37 Sophia partners guarantee credit transfer.
299 Institutions have accepted or given pre-approval for credit transfer.
* The American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE Credit®) has evaluated and recommended college credit for 33 of Sophia’s online courses. Many different colleges and universities consider ACE CREDIT recommendations in determining the applicability to their course and degree programs.
