In this activity, students choose a question they have concerning seeds and design an investigation to help them answer their question.
Planting seeds
Sprouting and growing seeds does not require costly resources. Recycled containers make useful pots, as do mugs and other items from the cupboard. Seeds can be sourced from foods or from plants from the garden. Introduce numeracy aspects by recording the time it takes for seeds to emerge, measuring stem growth, or count the number of leaves and/or flowers the seedling produces. Mustard and cress seeds sprout and grow quickly, and are edible, making them ideal seeds for young learners.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- gain experience in phrasing questions that can be answered with simple investigations
- gain experience in designing simple investigations
- discuss why they chose their question
- discuss the outcome of their investigation.
Download the Word file for:
- introduction/background notes
- what you need
- what to do.
Related content
Flowering plants have life cycles that include growth from a seed1, production of flowers, pollination2, fertilisation3 and the production of seeds from which new plants grow.
Use Plant reproduction – literacy and numeracy learning links to record and deepen student understanding of key science ideas.
For more resources linking science and gardens and plants, see our Garden collection – full of resources to support planning to develop a school garden. Sign in to make this collection part of your private collection, just click on the copy icon. You can then add additional content, notes and share and collaborate with others.
We also have a Garden science Pinterest board.
- seed: 1. Part of the sexual reproduction of angiosperms (flowering plants) and gymnosperms (cone plants). Contains an embryo and its food store, which creates a new plant when conditions are right. 2. Offspring or progeny.
- pollination: The transfer of pollen grains from the anther to the part of the plant containing the ovules. This process is necessary for fertilisation and reproduction of the plant.
- fertilisation: (Reproduction) The joining of male and female sex cells (gametes), resulting in combining genetic material.
