Peas in a pod Activity

Peas in a pod Activity Card Cosmic and Gem planted some seeds last week, and now the plants have started to grow. Even though they both planted the same seeds at the same time, the plants all look slightly different. Gem: “I think our plants look different because they have different genetics” Cosmic: “I think they look different because we planted them in different environments and looked after them differently” Your challenge How will you test which differences are due to the environment and which are due to genetics? How many sets of seeds will you plant? How will you look after the different sets? What types of differences do you think you will see?

Discuss How will you test which differences are due to the environment and which are due to genetics? How many sets of seeds will you plant? How will you look after the different sets? What types of differences do you think you will see? Getting started Think of some different instructions for your different seed sets, write down the instructions to help you remember! Test your ideas How will you record your findings? Could you make a table or a graph to show your results? How will you measure the differences you observe in the plants? Maybe you could use tables like these ones: Environment 1 Leaf size Height Strength Seed 1 Seed 2 Seed 3 Seed 4 Environment 2 Leaf size Height Strength Share your ideas Tell the rest of the group about your results. Do you think your experiment was fair? Could you do anything to improve it? Extra things to do Seed 1 Seed 2 Seed 3 Seed 4 Look at plants or vegetables in the supermarket, for example tomatoes. How many types can you see? How are they different? How are they similar? British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236