Family table: A Seed

All four rungs side by side. A younger child and an older one can do the same topic together, each at their own level.

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Step	Classes 1–3	Classes 4–7	Classes 8–10	Classes 11–12
Activity	Seed Detectives: Sort and Explain	Do Seeds Need Light to Sprout?	The Farmer's Seed Choice	Who Keeps the Seed? Diversity, Hybrids and Farmers' Rights
Safety	Seeds are for looking at and touching, never for eating. Raw rajma is harmful if eaten raw. Never use castor seeds or ratti seeds (bright red with a black spot): they are poisonous. Keep small seeds away from babies and toddlers, and make sure nothing goes into a mouth, nose or ear. Wash hands afterwards.	Don't eat the test sprouts: they have been sitting out for days. Throw away any seeds that grow mould, and wash hands after handling them. Put the cups where they can't be knocked over, and wipe up spills.	–	Privacy: If students interview farmers or seed sellers, they ask first, explain the purpose, record no names, and anyone can stop at any time.
What you need	Four kinds of dry seeds from the kitchen, such as rajma, chana, moong and mustard (a small handful of each) A plate, paper and a pencil One rajma bean soaked in water overnight by a grown-up	20 moong seeds, soaked in water for a few hours 2 small plastic cups or steel katoris, with cotton wool or tissue paper Water, a dark cupboard and a bright windowsill (not in hot, direct sun) A ruler with millimetres, paper and a pencil	Paper, a pencil and a calculator if you have one A seed packet or a seed advertisement, if you can find one The example card. It is made up but realistic, for one acre of wheat. Seed A (the farmer's usual seed): ₹40 per kg, 40 kg needed (₹1,600), about 12 quintals of grain in a normal year and about 10.2 quintals in a dry year. Seed B (a newer variety): ₹90 per kg, 40 kg needed (₹3,600), about 15 quintals in a normal year and about 10.5 quintals in a dry year. Other costs (fertiliser, water, labour) are ₹15,000 for either seed. The grain sells for ₹2,400 per quintal.	A library, or trusted websites (government departments, universities, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization) A notebook for a research outline
Notice	Put the seeds on the plate. Look closely and touch them gently. What colours and shapes can you see?	A seed under the soil starts to grow in the dark. Look at a dry moong seed and one that was soaked for a few hours. What has changed?	Look at a seed packet or advertisement, or the example card. What does it promise? Find the numbers: price, germination percentage and expected harvest. What does "95% germination" mean? (In a test, 95 out of every 100 seeds sprouted.)	For thousands of years, farmers saved and swapped their own seed. Today many buy new seed every season. Find out why: what happens when a farmer saves and replants seed from a hybrid crop?
Guess	Which seed is the biggest? Which is the smallest? Which feels the smoothest?	Put damp cotton in both cups and 10 soaked seeds in each. One cup goes into a dark cupboard, the other onto a bright windowsill. Which cup will sprout first? Which sprouts will be taller after five days? Write your guesses and your reasons.	Which seed should a small family farm buy: A, the cheaper one, or B, the dearer one with a bigger harvest in a normal year? Write your guess and your reason.	Choose one focused question, such as: "Does growing several varieties of a crop make a farm more able to cope with drought or pests than growing one variety?" Write a hypothesis you could test with evidence.
Try	Sort the seeds into groups by size. Mix them up and sort them again by colour. Then close your eyes: can you tell which seed is which just by feeling it?	Keep everything the same except the light: the same kind of seeds, the same cups, the same amount of water, the same room. Each morning, check that the cotton is damp but not flooded.	For each seed, work out cost, income and profit for a normal year and for a dry year. Write it as an equation: profit = harvest × price − (seed cost + other costs).	Draft a short research proposal: your question, what evidence would answer it (for example, published yield records, seed bank reports, government data), and how you would find it. Include at least one source that disagrees with your hypothesis.
Observe	Draw each group and count the seeds in it.	Each morning for five to seven days, count how many seeds have sprouted in each cup, measure the three tallest sprouts in millimetres, and note their colour. Record it all in a table.	Which seed earns more in a normal year? In a dry year? How many extra quintals must Seed B give just to pay back its extra seed cost (the break-even point)?	Judge each source: who produced it, who paid for it, what was measured, how large the sample was, and what was left out.
Explain	Tell someone your sorting rule. Why did this seed go into this group?	Use your table. What did light change, and what did it not change? Show someone where the biggest difference between the cups appears.	Write a short evidence brief: which seed would you advise for a family farm that often faces dry years? Use your numbers, and say what fact would change your mind.	Write a structured outline: question, hypothesis, evidence for, evidence against, conclusion, limits of your evidence, and a bibliography.
Ask another question	What is inside a seed? Look at the soaked rajma bean next to a dry one. Gently peel off its skin with your fingers. What do you see?	Move the pale sprouts into the light for two days. What happens to their colour? Would the amount of water change how fast the roots grow?	What do the numbers leave out? Think about loans, risk, saving seed for next year, and what the family needs to eat.	Who should own a new plant variety: the breeder who developed it, the farmers whose traditional varieties it came from, or both? Find out how India's Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001 tries to balance them.

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