Examining Children's Models of Seed

In recent years research has been carried out examining children's understanding of animals and plants, andthe restricted meanings children hold for these terms have been widely documented. However, children's understanding of seeds is one area that appears to have been neglected. This research examines children's models of seed. The 75 children involved were first asked to classify anumber of examples of seeds and non-seeds, and then to draw what they thought was inside one of the correctly identified seeds. Aspects of the children's understanding of germination and seed formation were alsoprobed, and finally the children were asked how they had found out about seeds. The children were found to hold a restricted meaning for the term ‘seed’ and a number of non-scientific ideas relating to the internal structure of a seed, germination and seed formation. However, by the age of 11,many of the children mentioned teachers or school when asked where they had learnt about seeds. This research concludes by examining some of ways in which teachers can help children to overcome the difficulties they may experience with this topic.