Skip to content
Grade 6 Beginner About 10 min Version 1 Awaiting review Premium

Inside a seed

A seed is a baby plant packed with food and wrapped in a protective coat. On the outside of a bean seed is the tough seed coat (testa). The hilum is the scar where the seed was attached to the pod, and next to it the micropyle is a tiny hole that lets water in when the seed starts to grow. Inside, the embryo has a radicle, which becomes the root, and a plumule, which becomes the shoot. A bean has two fleshy cotyledons (seed leaves) that store food for the embryo; it is a dicot. A maize grain has one cotyledon and stores its food in the endosperm; it is a monocot.

What you will learn

  • Identify the parts of a bean seed and a maize grain.
  • Describe what each part does.
  • Compare a dicot seed with a monocot seed.

Before you start

  • Know that plants grow from seeds.

Materials

  • Bean seeds and maize grains soaked overnight

Equipment

  • Hand lens, plastic knife (the teacher cuts the maize), tray

Procedure

  1. Soak bean seeds and maize grains in water overnight.
  2. Look at the outside of a bean, then gently split it open, and cut a maize grain lengthways.
  3. Choose a part name card and place it on the matching letter.