From Seed to Seed:
Plant Science for K-8 Educators

Activity 3: Sorting Out Seeds

Grades: K-4

Associated Lesson Topics:

• Seed characteristics
• Classification systems

National Standards:

• SCIENCE: Standard A, Standard C
• MATH: Measurement Standard, Data Analysis and Probability Standard

Planting the Seed...

In this activity, students will be supplied with an assortment of seeds. Do you think all of these seeds came from the same kind of plant? Why not? What words would you use to describe these seeds?

Teacher Information:

Taxonomists are people who specialize in the classification of things. For example, a plant taxonomist is responsible for classifying plants into Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. (An easy way to remember the order of this classification system is King Phillip Came Over From Germany Saturday!) Classification of plants is based primarily on plant reproductive structures, pollen and seed shapes, vein patterns, and epidermal hairs. In this activity, students will investigate the characteristics of seeds and classify them according to those characteristics.

Necessary Materials:

• Assortment of seeds: poppy seeds, sesame seeds, pine nuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, peas, lima beans, mustard seeds, cucumber seeds, pumpkin seeds, corn kernels, various flower seeds.
• Paper bags or envelopes.
• Planting materials.

Procedure:

• Divide the class into groups.
• Provide each group with a bag of different kinds of seeds or have students collect seeds from a range of different sources (outdoors, parents, and so on). Include as many different seeds as possible. For example, include seeds that are dispersed in various ways (windblown, eaten, attached to fur).
• Each group divides the seeds into "X" number of groups based on the characteristics of each seed, including color, size, shape, texture, and markings. The number "X" is provided by you-a realistic number based on the types of seeds you provide.
• Each group presents its classified seeds to the other groups. The other groups try to guess what characteristics were used to create each classification system.
• Once the guesses have been suggested, each group presents to the class the true rationale behind its classification system. Why did you group them this way? Remember that there are no right or wrong answers here as long as students have some justification for their systems.

Harvesting the Crop...

Each group chooses five seeds from the collection. Students can hypothesize about what kind of plant each seed comes from. Which seed do you think will produce the largest plant? The smallest? The most colorful? Have them assign a number to each seed and write their predictions in their journals. Students can plant the seeds, making sure to label the pots (or popsicle sticks identifying the garden location) with the assigned seed number. After growing the plants, they will know if their hypotheses were correct.

Note: Although these seeds are being planted for use in this investigation, you can also use them for lessons on germination, plant growth, photosynthesis, and reproduction while they are growing.

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