Agriculture and Food 7–12 · Years 11–12

Monocot and dicot seeds and seedlings: wheat and faba bean

Plant production (Preliminary): Plants and their commercial production

PracticalLow risk

The idea

A wheat grain (monocot) has one seed leaf inside the grain and sends up a sheathed shoot, while a faba bean (dicot) stores food in two large seed leaves, and the differences carry through to the roots and leaves of the crop.

What you need

wheat grain and faba (broad) bean seed, 12 of each (2 to cut open and 10 for the jars), soaked overnight in water
scalpel, white tile, hand lens or stereo microscope
iodine solution in potassium iodide (about 0.01 mol/L iodine), dropper bottle
4 glass jars, two for each crop, lined with damp filter paper or paper towel (the SAPS method)
4 pots, 10 cm, of seed-raising mix, for growing two seedlings of each crop on for three weeks; gloves and P2 dust masks for handling the mix
ruler, drawing materials

How to do it

Cut a soaked wheat grain lengthwise and a soaked faba bean in half; identify the seed coat, the stored food and the embryo, and add a drop of iodine to each cut surface.
Place 10 seeds of each crop, 5 in each of its two jars, between the damp paper and the jar wall; keep the paper moist and the jars in the light.
On days 2, 4, 7 and 10, draw and measure the root, the shoot and any seed leaves, and note where the seed leaves end up.
After day 10, plant two seedlings of each crop in pots of dampened seed-raising mix, one per pot, grow them on for three weeks, then compare root systems and leaf veins of the two crops.
Summarise the differences in a table and link each to how the crop is grown or harvested.

What you should see

The wheat grain's starchy endosperm turns blue-black with iodine, and the faba bean's two large cotyledons stain too, showing where each stores food. Faba bean sprouts in about 4 days in the SAPS jar method, and its cotyledons stay below the soil; it grows a main tap root and net-veined leaves. Wheat sends up a sheathed shoot (coleoptile) first, grows several seminal roots that become a fibrous root system, and has parallel-veined leaves. The learner knows it worked when every labelled feature appears on the drawings for the matching seed.

What changes

This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

A seed is a tiny plant with nothing else inside.
Every seedling pushes its seed leaves above the soil.
Grass crops such as wheat have no seed leaf.

Safety card

Low riskLearners carry it out

Hazards

scalpel cuts
iodine solution stains and irritates eyes
dust and bacteria (including Legionella) in potting mix

Controls

cut on a tile with the blade away from the body
eye protection for iodine
dampen potting mix before handling; gloves and a P2 mask; wash hands afterwards

Note

NSW Department of Education, Chemical Safety in Schools (CSIS) 2021 Technical Update: Section 1 (general information for all staff) and Volume 2 Appendix D (generic risk assessment advice for each chemical). Complete a CSIS or RiskAssess site-specific risk assessment before the lesson.

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

Agriculture Stage 6 Syllabus (2013)P2.1
Agriculture 11–12 Syllabus (2026), new syllabus, implementation from 2028AG-11-05
Australian Curriculum v9No Australian Curriculum v9 code is listed.

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

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