Friday, February 20, 2009

Sounds like a science project to me!

As part of my volunteer work, I partner with Gulf Breeze Elementary for the I LOVE Science program (Increasing Local Opportunities for Volunteers Enthusiastic about Science). I snapped a couple of pictures last year while the kids were working through one of the experiments on seed dispersal.Here is one of the experiments we did!
Procedure

1. Go to the grocery store and pick out different kinds of fruit. Don't just stick to the traditional fruits, try some unique fruits as well. Some types of fruit you might think are vegetables! Also remember to try peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and squash.

3. Make a list of all of the fruits you have chosen in a data table. Also include a place to write the number of seeds, number of fruits counted and the productivity of each type of fruit.

4. Write the name of each type of fruit on a paper cup. You will use the cup to hold the seeds from that fruit. Remember that each cup is only for one type of seed!

5. Begin to dissect your first fruit, removing the seeds and putting them in a paper cup. Do one type of fruit at a time so that the seeds do not mix together. For each type of fruit you should dissect a few fruits and add your seeds together to get a better set of data. Write down the number of fruits that you used to collect seeds in your data table.

6. When you are done removing the seeds, count the number of seeds in the cup and write the number in your data table.

7. Repeat steps 3–5 for each type of fruit. Some fruits might be tricky, so here are some tips:
Strawberry seeds are on the outside of the fruit, so pick them off using your fingernail or a toothpick. Bananas do have seeds, but they are very tiny. Look for the tiny black spots on the inside of a banana slice. you can try to count them, but it is not recommended.
Pepper seeds are spicy! Do not touch your eyes after handling the seeds. Use a mild pepper variety, like a Bell pepper if you are very sensitive. Avoid trying seedless varieties of grapes, oranges, cucumbers and melons. Remember that a "pit" is the same as a seed, and will be found in "stone fruits" like cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots.

8. After you have counted the number of seeds inside each type of fruit, you are ready to calculate the productivity for each type of fruit. The productivity of each fruit is measured by the number of seeds per piece of fruit. To do this calculation, divide the total number of seeds by the number of pieces of fruit that you counted for each variety. For eaxample, if you counted 20 seeds total in 5 grapes, then the productivity of a single grape would be 4 seeds per fruit. Write your answers in the data table.

9. Make a graph to show the number of seeds per fruit. A bar graph works best for this type of experiment. Put the number of seeds on the left side of the graph (Y-axis) and draw each bar up to the correct number. Remember to label each bar of your graph with the correct type of fruit.
Which fruits had the most seeds? Which fruits had the least seeds? Were there any patterns of seed production that you noticed? Did similar types of fruits produce similar numbers of seeds?

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