Seed GerminationBiology I

The Scenario

You will be given a dish with 10 seeds. Your job is to answer the following question:

What is the percent Germination of your seed sample?

Scientific EvidenceYou must provide scientific evidence to support

your answer and prove that your answer was indeed generated through a scientific process.

This means you must describe your experimental setup, how data was collected, how and when observations were made and how you know that they are of significance.

Your experiment must generate results which are repeatable.

You are responsible forA well planned valid scientific experiment.

A lab report written according to the format described to you in class.

Collecting data in an organized fashion.

Reporting the results of your experiment.

Experimental Setup

Potential Problems

But Wait there's more.Some of your seeds have been sitting for a

very long time. 27 years. How might this impact your results? Does this information create another question you might be able to gather evidence about?

Some of the seeds have been sitting for less time 6 years or 10 years. How might this affect your experiment?

Some of the seeds are less than a year old.

More informationSome seeds are very very small, this might

affect your experimental setup.

Seeds cannot be too wet or they will rot. If they dry out they will not germinate.

Data from a variety of sources.Peas stored since 1986 were soaked in water

then placed in a biochamber for 25 minutes and the amount of oxygen in the chamber was measured for that time.

The same process was repeated with fresh peas.

The following slide shows the results.

Blue Line - 27 year old PeasRed Line - 1 year old peas

An additional experimentThe same peas were tested in a similar fashion

the following day.

The results are as follows on the next slide.

How would you interpret this?