S3-U3L3-How Do Living Things Change?

How Do Living Things Change?

S3-U3L3 Virtual Laboratory

What happens when seeds are planted in the soil?

Seeds grow into plants. In this lesson, you'll investigate how plants germinate and grow into bean plants.

Open Ended

Have you ever planted seeds in a garden? If so, what seeds did you plant?

You may have planted radish or carrot seeds in a garden. Onions, garlic and tomatoes are also a good option.

What are examples of seeds you can plant in a vegetable garden?

Some seeds that are popular to plant in a vegetable garden are radish, corn, lettuce, zucchini, eggplant, tomato, carrot, cucumber, and squash.

Multiple Select

What do seeds need to grow into plants?

• water

• light

• air

• space

• potting soil

Mongo beans planting experiment

• period: 15 days

• planting environment in different settings: boys: soil vs girls: cotton balls in a zip lock

• measure length every 3 days

• document progress with pictures and chart

What's the embryo inside a seed? What will happen to it after it's planted?

• The embryo is a baby plant.

• Given the right conditions, it can germinate and grow into an adult plant.

What is the function of a seed coat?

• A seed coat protects a seed.

Besides an embryo and a seed coat, what else is inside a seed?

• Inside a seed, there is food for a baby plant (embryo) to grow, when it's still inside the ground.

Multiple Select

Is it true that after a young plant uses up the food in the seed, it gets its food from the ground, through its roots?

• True

• Not true

No, that's not right.

After a young plant grows out of the ground, it will produce its own food. A plant produces its own food from water, air, and light.

Why is it important to measure the height of the bean plant for 50 days?

• The purpose of your investigation is to observe how a bean seed changes into an adult plant. Fifty days is enough time to observe this process. You can see how a bean seed changes into an adult plant by measuring it for 50 days.

For the purpose of our mongo bean experiment

We will shorten our observation for 15 days.

What's a graph?

• A graph is a way to record results from an experiment.

• In your investigation, you graph the height of the bean plant at different days since the seed was planted.

• A graph is useful because it can show patterns.

• In your investigation, a graph can help you discover a pattern about how bean plants grow!

Multiple Choice

How many days will we be conducting our experiment?

• 10 days

• 15 days

• 20 days

• 50 days

When you observe the growth of a bean plant, why is it important to take photos and record the plant's height at different times?

• Taking photos and recording the plant's height allows you to produce records of what happened during the plant's growth.

• After the experiment is over, you'll need these records to analyze what happened.

How are the three graphs different?

• The graph on the far left shows a plant that starts to grow immediately after the seed was planted.

• The middle graph shows that the plant's growth above the ground starts several days after the seed was planted, and that the plant continues to grow to Day 50.

• The graph on the far right is the same as the middle graph, except that the plant reaches a certain height at Day 40 and remains at this height through Day 50.

How can you make a "good guess" about which graph is correct?

• 
  

• 
  

• Think about what you've learned so far about how bean seeds start to grow.

• Each bean seed has a baby plant that starts to grow inside the ground.

• Do you think this baby plant sprouts out of the ground immediately after the seed has been planted?

• 
  

Multiple Choice

Arrange the procedure in order. Choose the correct sequence.

Open Ended

Why do you need to "wait a few days" between measuring the bean plant's growth during the experiment?

Why do you need to "wait a few days" between measuring the bean plant's growth during the experiment?

The bean plant may not change enough in just one day for you to see and measure.

How is the computer model similar to and different from what happens to bean seeds in nature?

• The computer model is based on what happens in nature, so it's similar to what you would find in nature.

• But every time you run this model, you'll get exactly the same results.

• If you conduct this experiment in nature, you'll find that each bean seed grows in a slightly different way.

Why don't bars appear in the graph until Day 10?

Bars in the graph represent the plant's height above the ground. The plant doesn't grow above the ground until Day 10, which is when the bars start to appear.

Multiple Select

Does the fact that the bars don’t appear in the graph until Day 10 mean that up to that time nothing has happened to the bean seed?

• Yes

• No

No, it doesn't. During the first 10 days, the baby plant inside the seed grows inside the soil by using the food inside the seed.

You've already conducted the experiment and you've seen the graph. Why do you need to explain what the graph means?

• When you conduct any experiment, recording the results and graphing them is not enough. 

• You also need to explain what the results mean. 

• You've completed your experiment only after you've explained what the results mean.

An adult bean plant develops from a seed. Why is it important for a bean plant to develop new seeds?

• The new seeds make it possible for a new generation of bean plants to grow.

• If bean plants didn't reproduce, eventually they would all die out.

Open Ended

People eat lots of seeds—beans, rice, wheat, soy, and corn. What would happen if people ate up all these seeds?

People eat lots of seeds—beans, rice, wheat, soy, and corn. What would happen if people ate up all these seeds? 

• If people ate up all these seeds, there wouldn't be any seeds left to develop new plants.

• When farmers harvest seeds for people to eat, some of these seeds are put aside for planting.