What are the best conditions for the germination of seeds?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Method

1. Collect all the apparatus
2. Place some cotton wool into the test tube, then place 14 seeds in the test tube.
3. Poor 2.5 cm/3 of water into the test tube. (Must be constant in order to make it a fair test) Place the test tubes into a test tube rack.
4. Repeat procedures 2 +3 four more times
5. Place the test tube racks into the water baths, freezer and an open space in a room in order to do room temperature.
6. Check all the test tubes at the same time everyday for 5 days, and collect results.

Results

Room Temperature

Freezer

45 degrees

50 degrees

55 degrees

Conclusion

The results that are produced clearly show what temperature is suitable for the germination of seeds. Room temperature is therefore the most suitable temperature as up to 92% of the seeds germinated over a 5-day period.

The temperature in the freezer is too low; therefore it is impossible for the cells to be active. The low temperature doesn’t allow germination to occur.

Vice versa, high temperatures wouldn’t allow germination to occur. High temperatures cause the cells to denature, and therefore wouldn’t allow the process to continue.

Evaluation

There are a certain points which allowed me obtain reliable results:

• I kept the same volume of water the same constant.
• I used the same amount of seeds

In addition there are points, which didn’t allow me to obtain reliable results:

• The test tube in the freezer couldn’t obtain sunlight, therefore it was only exposed to 1 condition, which directly makes the results unreliable
• The room temperature always alters as the air-conditioning is switched on and off numerous times. The change of season might also affect the room temperature.
• Seeds wouldn’t be able to germinate at night, as there is no sunlight.

In order to improve my experiment and make my results more reliable, I would do the following to adjust my method:

• Conduct the room temperature experiment in a room where the temperature is kept constant all the time.
• Conduct the freezing experiment in a room, which has the same temperature as in the freezer, but the test tube, is exposed to light. However, this is very difficult to find such a location.
• Conduct the experiments in a room, which uses artificial sunlight (lamps), allowing the seeds to germinate overnight.