| We've got to choose a topic for our experiment, haven't we, Jack? |
| Were you thinking of something to do with seeds? |
| That's right. |
| I thought we could look at seed germination - how a seed begins to grow. |
| OK. |
| Any particular reason? |
| I know you're hoping to work in plant science eventually... |
| Yeah, but practically everything we do is going to feed into that. |
| No, there's an optional module on seed structure and function in the third year that I might do, |
| so I thought it might be useful for that. |
| If I choose that option, I don't have to do a dissertation module. |
| Good idea. |
| Hmm... well, I thought for this experiment we could look at the relationship between seed size and the way the seeds are planted. |
| So, we could plant different sized seeds in different ways, and see which grow best. |
| OK. |
| We'd need to allow time for the seeds to come up. |
| That should be fine if we start now. |
| A lot of the other possible experiments need quite a bit longer. |
| So that'd make it a good one to choose. |
| And I don't suppose it'd need much equipment; |
| we're not doing chemical analysis or anything. |
| Though that's not really an issue, |
| we've got plenty of equipment in the laboratory. |
| Yeah. We need to have a word with the tutor if we're going to go ahead with it though. |
| I'm sure our aim's OK. |
| It's not very ambitious but the assignment's only 10% of our final mark, isn't it? |
| But we need to be sure we're the only ones doing it. |
| Yeah, it's only 5% actually, |
| but it'd be a bit boring if everyone was doing it. |
| Did you read that book on seed germination on our reading list? |
| The one by Graves? |
| I looked through it for my last experiment, |
| though it wasn't all that relevant there. |
| It would be for this experiment, though. |
| I found it quite hard to follow - |
| lots about the theory, which I hadn't expected |
| Yes, I'd been hoping for something more practical. |
| It does include references to the recent findings on genetically-modified seeds, though. |
| Yes, that was interesting. |
| I read an article about seed germination by Lee Hall. |
| About seeds that lie in the ground for ages and only germinate after a fire? |
| That's the one. |
| I knew a bit about it already, but not about this research. |
| His analysis of figures comparing the times of the fires and the proportion of seeds that germinated |
| was done in a lot of detail - very impressive. |
| Was that the article with the illustrations of early stages of plant development? |
| They were very clear. |
| I think those diagrams were in another article. |
| Anyway, shall we have a look at the procedure for our experiment? |
| We'll need to get going with it quite soon. |
| Right. |
| So the first thing we have to do is find our seeds. |
| I think vegetable seeds would be best. |
| And obviously they mustn't all be the same size. |
| So, how many sorts do we need? |
| About four different ones? |
| I think that would be enough. |
| There'll be quite a large number of seeds for each one. |
| Then, for each seed we need to find out how much it weighs, |
| and also measure its dimensions, |
| and we need to keep a careful record of all that. |
| That'll be quite time-consuming. |
| And we also need to decide how deep we're going to plant the seeds - |
| right on the surface, a few millimetres down, or several centimetres. |
| OK. |
| So then we get planting. |
| Do you think we can plant several seeds together in the same plant pot? |
| No, I think we need a different one for each seed. |
| Hmm... Right. And we'll need to label them. |
| We can use different coloured labels. |
| Then we wait for the seeds to germinate. |
| I reckon that'll be about three weeks, depending on what the weather's like. |
| Then we see if our plants have come up, and write down how tall they've grown. |
| Then all we have to do is look at our numbers, and see if there's any relation between them. |
| That's right... |