Seed Germination Science Fair Projects

EDU-36820 C2D Discovery Planet Digital Microscope / Videoscope	Young Scientists Club Kit 10 Seed and Germination	DNA Extraction

Seed germination science fair projects are generally pretty basic. Students predict that one type of seed will germinate sooner than another, or that the seed can be germinated in paper towels. If you are looking for more advanced seed germination science fair projects then try out these experiments.

Seeds will germinate in plain gelatin. This is the first hypothesis that you can test with your seed germination science fair projects. For this experiment your independent variable is the growing medium and the dependent variable is the seed's germination. How can this experiment be developed into an even more advanced project?

Is sunlight needed for a seed to germinate? This is a hypothesis question that you can answer using biology science fair projects. For these experiments the independent variable will be the amount of light the seed is exposed to and the dependent variable will be the seed's germination. When developing this type of experiment think critically about your experiment's setup. You want to make sure that the only variables affecting your results are the ones that you have identified. All other variables will need to be controlled or eliminated from the equation.

Can seeds be germinated in salt water? To test this hypothesis you will want to submerge your seed in salt water and then wait to see if the seed will germinate. Did the seed germinate? Why or why not? Try this experiment with pond water and with tap water. Did the see germinate in either of these water experiments? If yes, which one and why. If no, why not? What do these experiments tell you about what a seed needs to germinate?

The next experiment will compare the germination speed and rate of seeds grown in sand to the speed and rate of seeds grown in soil. For this experiment the independent variable will be the growing medium (soil or sand) and the independent variables will be the growth speed and rate of the seeds. This is an intermediate experiment so you will need to germinate numerous seed for each test experiment. For example, you will need to test at least a dozen seeds in each growing medium. You can advance this project by testing a variety of seed types to see if this has an impact on the growing mediums' ability to germinate seeds.

The final experiment that you can complete is to test if seeds can be germinated in liquids other than water. One angle that this experiment can take is to compare the germination rates of seeds in acidic liquids like milk to basic liquids. In addition to explaining what results you got, you will also be responsible for explaining why your experiment delivered the results that it did. How can this experiment/project be modified to create a more advanced project?