Save Our Seeds: Schools' seed longevity project

What students gain

• An understanding of why it is necessary to maintain a seed bank for the future of mankind.
• An awareness of the challenges in conserving seeds from the native British flora.
• Experience of investigative procedures and techniques which link directly into the GCSE Science Curriculum 2006, Btech., Applied Biol., IBac., GCE.
• An opportunity to take part in a real life research investigation, which will make an impact on a global seed conservation project.
• Basic laboratory skills.
• An opportunity to be acknowledged as being part of producing a scientific publication.
• A realisation that a standard school method to plan and write up an investigation is the same as a scientific study, demonstrating the need for preliminary trials, evaluation and method development, before a full scale study and analysis is undertaken.

Extension opportunities

• A curiosity in finding out more about species of the native British flora.
• Plant identification skills.
• The opportunity to consider their findings in relation to ecological data (habitat, competition, weather, etc.).
• Consideration of the possible affect of a global warming on plant distribution; introducing biodiversity hot spots, migration corridors and extinctions. The programme can include an understanding of the present trend in species extinction rates.
• The seed germination procedure can be used in other applications as a technique to study the effects of heavy metals/plant growth substances on germination. This can be related to man’s effect on the environment and commercial uses eg. weed control on golf courses, lawn tennis courts, football stadiums. This technique can also be used to demonstrate and investigate allelopathy and explanation of comparative germination data between species.

Curriculum linked development in

• promoting students interest in science.
• adding to student’s appreciation of how science works.
• seeing how science can affect mankind and the environment.
• enhancing student’s enquiry and data handling skills.