In this exercise you and your group members will be
designing and carrying out a controlled experiment. Your task is to determine if a factor of your choosing will influence the growth of radish seeds.
Before you get started you first need to understand what a seed is. A seed is the embryo of a living plant and its food supply packaged in a protective coat. Seeds are dormant (not active) until germination occurs. Germination occurs when a seed takes in water and swells. The swelling causes the protective coating to crack open. Once this occurs, a root will then emerge.
As a group do the following:
1. State the Problem: ______
Prior Knowledge: Use any prior knowledge that you have and list factors that might cause a seed to germinate
2. Hypothesis: Often hypotheses are written in “if/then” statements. They need to be measurable statement. For example, “If I run around the gym four times then my heart rate will increase by 20 beats per minute.
Write a hypothesis you and your group plan to test:
______
3. Set-up a Controlled Experiment
a. What will be your independent (manipulated) variable? ______
b. What will be your dependent (responding) variable? ______
c. List the factors of your experimental group List the factors of your control group
**Be sure to include amounts. ** Be sure to include amounts.
d. Each group will be given 10 radish seeds, two plastic baggies, paper towels, deionized water, rulers, sharpie markers and a graduated cylinder. List any additional materials you will need from me—be sure to include the amounts. ______
______
4a. Data—using a ruler, make a table so that you may record your data.
4b. Data—after our class discussion, use a ruler to make the tables your class selected and record your data.
5. Analyze Results—Did your results support or reject your hypothesis? Be sure to write in complete sentences.
6. Conclusion-What conclusions about seed germination can you draw from your results? Be sure to write in complete sentences.