Seed Dispersal Lab Report

Seed Dispersal Lab Sam O’Quinn Per. 5

Introduction-

Whenever plants grow reproduce, they have to have a method to disperse their seeds. They can do this in one of three ways: through wind, animals, or by water. There are 6 different methods of wind dispersal. There is the glider, parachute, helicopter, spinner, cottony, and the tumbleweed methods. With the glider method the glider swoops through the air and glides the seed. The parachute method works like an umbrella by using tiny hairs at the top of a stem to carry the seed. The helicopter method uses a pair of wings attached to a stem to spin the seed. The spinner also uses a wing method to spin the seed like the helicopter and cut through the air except, the spinner has the wings attached to the seed. The cottony

Then cut out all nine of the spinners.

3. Next place a seed in the middle of a spinner and tape it down so that the seed not fall off (repeat this step with the rest of the seeds/spinners).

4. Mark a location on the ground using duct tape directly underneath where the spinner will be dropped (preferably a wide, open area underneath a balcony).

5. With the stopwatch ready drop each spinner one at a time right above the marked point and time how long the seed is in the air as the spinner floats to the ground (note: one of the seeds will be dropped without a spinner and will be used as a constant).

6. Use the tape measure to measure the distance traveled from the marked point to where the seed landed.

7. Record the distances and times in the notebook and repeat the process until the spinners have been dropped 30 times.

Data-

Trial C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Time(sec) 1.1 4.01 3.97 4.4 3.68 5.14 4.21 3.13 3.89 4.6 3.4 3.46 3.8 2.55

Distance(cm) 104 85 21 45 50 30 16 92 73 55 70 76 44 19

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

2.81 3.29 3.83 3.33 2.44 3.16 3.51 3.91 3.63 3.72 3.74 3.33 3.8 2.5 3.87 3.78

36 36 48 56 17 56 58 10 113 95 65 32 48 12 45 59

Analysis of