Hi I am Jared! Welcome to Fun Science Demos.
I am sitting in a garden, and that
garden is in a school. More about that
later. Let us start with this! This is an
apple, so I am going to split this apple
open so we can see what is inside. Here we
go, and what do we find? we find seeds.
Now, it is easy for me to count how many seeds
are in this apple, but here is a bigger
question. Is it possible to count the
number of apples that are in this one seed?
What do I mean by that? I mean that
if I plant this apple seed, it is going to
grow into an apple tree, and what grows
on an apple tree? Apples! It would be almost
impossible to count the number of apples
that could grow from this one tree that
grows from this one apple seed, and that is
the big idea. The life cycle of plants.
Seeds are absolutely amazing.
All plants want to make more plants.
Scientists call that reproduction, and
most plants reproduce through seeds, and
we are going to take a tour through this
garden today and look at a lot of
different flowers and plants and see if
we can find their seeds. but first let us
take a look at these two plants right
next to me. This first plant is called
the sunflower. kind of looks like the sun
with the bright yellow petals. So where
are the seeds? This looks like the flower,
but when I actually break open this head,
split it open so I can take a closer
Look, the seeds are actually inside
of the whole head here of the sunflower. All of these seeds become a
new plant. a new sunflower plant if we plant
them. Now let us take a look at this plant.
this plant is actually called the
Chinese lantern plant, and I want you to
see if you can find the flowers on this
plant because many times the flower is
the key to where the seeds are. So if I
lift up these leaves you will see the
flowers actually hanging down here, and
what is so neat about this plant is, as
those flowers grow, as those flowers age
they are eventually going to turn into
these lanterns, that is why it is called
the Chinese lantern plant, and guess
what is growing inside of these lanterns?
seeds! so let us split one open and see
if we can find the seeds. Pull a
lantern, and I am going to carefully peel
the lantern open, and you will be able to
see this round green thing. It is actually
a fruit, it might look like that is one
seed of the plant but this is a really cool part:
I am going to cut this open
because the seeds are actually inside of
this fruit. So now let us cut open into
this fruit to see if we can find the
seeds.
Take a look at all of those little tiny
seeds. lots and lots of little tiny seeds,
and all of these seeds would make more
Chinese lantern plants. So we have seen
that seeds can be hiding in plants.
We have seen that in the apple. We have seen that
in the sunflower. We have seen that in the
Chinese lantern plant Let us now tour
this garden and see if we can find some
other seeds hiding in other plants.
Our eyes are automatically drawn to these
beautiful colors, and the flowers bright
vibrant colors, but underneath these
flowers we see all these seed pods.
That is because these flowers will all
turn in to these seed pods, and what is in
the seed pods? seeds! and what does the
plant do with those seeds? Those seeds
become new plants! it is the life cycle of
plants in action. Now I am kneeling right
next to a tomato plant, and we are going
to try to look for the seeds in this
tomato plant, and really the secret is to
try and find the flowers first. So right
in front of my face there should be
little yellow flowers, and these flowers
are going to turn into tomatoes and
inside the tomatoes are seeds. Now let us
take a closer look. So we can see the
flowers turning into tomatoes, and then
see if we can find the seeds. so what are
we looking at here? Here we see the
tomato flower, and right next to it you
can see little tiny tomatoes actually
growing from these flowers, and then as
the tomatoes get more mature and they
ripen into a tomato there should be
seeds inside this tomato. so let us cut
this open and see if we can find the tomato seed.
So let us open this tomato up and
take a look at the seeds. I peel it back.
It looks kind of mushy but inside that
mush are all those little tiny white
tomato seeds.
I am standing next to this big tree. it is
actually a buckeye tree, and trees are
plants too. and many trees also make
seeds. Can you find the seed pods? if you
pick these guys out right here you would
be correct. we are going to try and break
one of these open and see the seeds
inside this seed pod.
So let us split open this seed pod and see
if we can find the seeds, and take a look
at that: beautiful! very easy to pick the
seed out of the buckeye tree. I am in a
garden surrounded by plants, and most of
these plants make seeds, and we have seen
that those seeds come in many different
shapes, and sizes, and colors. It is really
an adventure to see if we can go around
and find all of the different seeds that
these plants make, and all of those seeds
make new plants. It is the life cycle of plants
in action. In the beginning we mentioned
that this garden is in a school.
Schools are great places to start
gardens because gardens are just perfect
for bringing science to life for kids.
this garden is at McKinley Elementary in
Abington, Pennsylvania, and we would like to
thank Dr. Lentz, and McKinley Elementary
for opening up this beautiful garden for
us to use. We also like to give a huge
shout out to all the parent volunteers
who keep this garden looking awesome.
Think about starting a garden at your school!
Science is so cool! Stop and try to wonder: why?