Biology 111 Lab Report: Seed Germination
Question/Purpose:
The Question or Purpose of our lab is to answer the question “How is the germination of a
seed affected by sunlight?”
Experimental Hypothesis:
We believe these results will occur.
1. The seeds that are water deprived (1 mL of H2O a day) will not grow very well due to
a lack of water which is important in photosynthesis and also lacks nutrients. The
seeds may also die off due to a lack of water.
2. The seeds that are have a proper amount of water (10 mL of H2O a day) will grow
the best and achieve the greatest height, and overall best appearance.
3. The seeds that are flooded with water (Kept at 100 mL of H2O per day) will grow the
fastest at the beginning because they have the most water which can be absorbed.
The seeds will eventually die off due to a surplus of water.
Materials:
Bean seeds- Nine beans which were red and white in color, between 1.6mm and 1.9mm
in length. What we are going to test on.
Petri dishes- Transparent glass cylinder which holds 100 mL of liquid. Used for holding
seeds.
Paper towels- Corse paper which was greyish in color. Used for putting seeds on and
cleaning up messes.
Water- Transparent liquid with no taste, odour. Used for giving nutrients to the beans.
Window with sunlight- Big glass open space in which the sun can reach our beans. Used
for giving the beans energy and assisting in photosynthesis.
Ruler- Transparent piece of plastic which has marks for measuring. Used for measuring
how much are beans have grown.
Eye droppers- Transparent plastic which holds 10 mL of water, transparent piece of glass
with a black top holds about 5 mL of water. Used for adding water to our beans.
Tweezers- Silver metal pair of pincers. Used for picking up the beans to look at and
measure.
500 mL beaker- A large transparent container which holds 500 mL of water. Used for
transporting water from the sink to our beans so we could add water.
10 mL beaker- A small transparent container with groves to show how much water is in it
holds 10 mL of water. Used for adding water to our beans.
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Biology 111 Lab Report: Seed Germination
Procedure:
1. Put 9 seeds into 3 different petri dishes.
2. Fill the first dish with 1 mL of water, the second dish with 10 mL of water, and the
third with 100 mL of water.
3. Place the dishes on the windowsill where light can reach it.
4. Observe the beans daily (Monday- Friday).
5. Record the results based on size change, physical changes, water changes, growth
rate, and odour.
Variables:
The Variables in our experiment are:
ControlledLight- The amount of sunlight given to the beans each day.
Temperature- The temperature of the room/ environment.
Air- The amount of air given to the beans each day.
Acidity- The acidity of the water.
ManipulatedWater- How much water we added each day.
RespondingSmell- The beans became extremely smelly with flooding, some even smelt like beans.
Mold- Some beans started to show an appearance of mold and some became so
catastrophic that they had to be terminated.
Length of sprouts- Some beans started to sprout stocks.
Cracks/ wrinkles- The beans wrinkled a little or a lot in which they cracked and opened.
Analysis:
The relationship between our manipulated variables and the responding are many. With our
beans that had a little amount of water (1 mL), there was almost no change in what
happened they looked the same with an appearance of little wrinkles. They smelt the same
and at day 8 they started to mold a little bit. The beans that had the moderate amount of
water (10 mL), the beans started slow but ended up doing the greatest. They are the beans
that grew the sprouts and started to smell like beans. The beans that were flooded started
out the best and had the best potential. The beans had large cracks and split open, they
slimed and ended up becoming so moldy that they had to be destroyed. They never
sprouted even though they became the biggest. If the lab were changed and we put less
water in the flooding petri dish than perhaps the beans would never have become so moldy
and would have lasted longer and actually sprouted. The experimental design could be
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Biology 111 Lab Report: Seed Germination
changed by multiplying the water levels by five times instead of ten. If that were to happen I
believe that the beans with the moderate amounts would not end up doing the best because
they are still not getting enough water. Since the beans that were flooded would only be
getting 50 mL they would have a chance to grow the best.
Conclusion:
In Conclusion from this lab we have proved that flooding a bean does not make it grow
better and instead makes it a lot worse. Our hypothesis was 100% correct in which we
thought that the beans deprived of water would not grow, the beans that had a moderate
amount of water would show the best results in which they did as they sprouted and started
to look like beans. The beans that were flooded started out the best and looked promising
while they got bigger which was just due to a large surplus of water. Some possible sources
of error that could have happened are not being able to measure the beans precisely at the
beginning so we do not know how much of a change really occurred. Another error could be
that the water level could have been less due to evaporation and not all going into
absorbing. We also never got to measure the water levels on the weekends so they could
have died, we were lucky though. We learned that if we were to do this experiment again
we would put less water in our flooding dish because it had bad repercussions. The beans
became so smelly that the experiment had to be cut short and we never knew what would
become of them.
Error Analysis:
Experimental errorsWater level- The water levels are based on eyeballing the water level grooves on the
cylinders.
Measurement- The beans were measured using a ruler and were not measured between
lines and therefore not very precise.
Time- We were not able to add water on weekends.
Some ways to reduce the sources of errors would be to come in on the weekends to add
water to the beans. We could use a more precise measuring tool or a better ruler. We could
measure the water levels based on weight and that way we would know exactly if we had
the same amount of water each day. Another error that we cannot change but may have
affected the growth would be weather.
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Biology 111 Lab Report: Seed Germination
Data:
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