Anatomy of a sprouting seed: An at-home science lesson

This is a simple and fun science project that I used to do with pop corn kernels when I was a kid.
It's a great lesson in seed anatomy and can be applied to a botany or biology lesson plan or just done for some educational fun!

The Materials you'll need are things you'll most likely have around the house:

-A clear glass or plastic cup that you can easily see through.
-A paper towel folded to match the height of the cup
-1/4 cup of filtered water
-corn kernels (I'm lucky enough to have some heirloom varieties on hand, but bagged popping corn from the store works great too! Just not the microwave kind)
-A dry erase marker
-A notebook to keep track of the day to day growth and draw pictures of all of the parts as they grow. Use the internet to look up some seed anatomy charts especially if you're sprouting more than one kind of seed


Sunflower seeds will also work great and they have a different anatomy than corn seeds do, so to further the experiment it would be fun to set up two or more different seed types and track the sprouting and growth rate differences between them. Also note and research the differences in the seed anatomy as they sprout and grow! For this post I'm just using one kind of seed. Red corn.

Your going to take your folded paper towel and line the inside of the glass, pressing it tight up against the sides so it's not loose in the glass.

Next you're going to pour your 1/4 cup of filtered water into the bottom of the glass and let the towel wick it up. You should have extra water at the bottom of the glass, if not then add enough so there's about a 1/4 inch of water left unabsorbed by the towel.



Then gently place your seeds between the glass and the wet paper towel about halfway down the side of the cup. Press the towel a little more to make sure they're snug in there. You can have several seeds in one cup, just space them about an inch apart. Use the dry erase marker to write the date on the glass. You can also number the seeds to track which one sprouts first and if you have some competitive kids in the house you can make a race out of it! Each kid can pick a seed or two and root (pun intended) for their seeds to grow the fastest over the next few days!

My seeds started showing activity after about 36 hours! Pretty fast right? This is all the stuff that normally goes on underneath the soil so it seems like it takes much longer for seeds to sprout .
The first root, or radicle, emerges from the coleorhiza which is a protective sheath at the end of the seed.


In this photo you can see the first little radicle emerging from the kernel on the left.

After another 24 hours we saw the first signs of the coleoptile, which will grow to form the foliage of the grass-like corn plant.

At this point most of the kernels had some sort of action happening, but not all of them! This shows why it's important to plant multiple seeds when you're sowing for crops. Sometimes seeds just don't sprout at all so it's good to have back up!

On this seed the little coleoptile seems to have gotten a little lost in trying to find it's way UP, but it only took a few hours for it to right itself and get headed in the direction it needed to be.

After 4 days the radicle on all of the sprouted seeds is very apparent and starting to really look like a nice set of roots!





on day 5 after setting the seeds in the glass, the sprouts have reached the top of the glass. This is normally when we would see sprouts breaking through the soil if these seeds were planted in a garden!

On day three I did set them in the sunlight for a while so they would produce chlorophyll and turn green. I also had to add more water, about another 1/4 cup, because the sun helped dry up the water.

Don't let your paper towel dry out! The corn will continue to grow in the glass for several days. You can transfer them to some soil when you're all done tracking the growth of what goes on behind the scenes. Plant them with the paper towel and all so you don't damage the root system.


Have fun and experiment with different seeds! This is a great indoor activity for the hot summer months and your kids will enjoy keeping track of their own seeds as they grow!