1. What is a seed?
Leading question. Allow students to offer their thoughts in an orderly fashion. It would be a good idea to record these thoughts for further use. You can also use the student comments as a way to assess the group’s prior knowledge.

2. An example of seeds the students will be familiar with
An example of seeds the students will be familiar with. These seeds are from a dandelion plant.

3. Where does a seed come from?
Leading question. Again let the students speculate in an orderly fashion. Remember to record their comments and use this slide as another opportunity to assess their prior knowledge.

4. This is a picture of a lily plant and it is an “answer” to the leading question, “Where does a seed come from?” Seeds come from flowers.

5. What’s in a seed?
Leading question. Let the students contemplate this and give answers in an orderly fashion. This question is asking for much more specific knowledge than the previous leading questions. Record the student responses. It can again serve as an assessment of prior knowledge.

6. A close-up view of the internal anatomy of a seed
A close-up view of the internal anatomy of a seed. It is not necessary to label all of the parts. The important idea on this slide is to show that a seed does have structures and that these each have a function.

7. Another, less close-up view of a seed, showing the macroscopic structures. This seed is from a dicotyledonous plant.

8. The cotyledons (commonly called the seed leaves) emerging from soil.

9. The lily flower again.

10. Do all plants make flowers?
Leading question. The preceding slides have explored the idea of seeds and this question is to lead students into thinking about seedless plants. Again, record the student responses and review them as a way to assess their knowledge in this area. If the students answer “no”, then challenge them to speculate on how flowerless plants reproduce if they have no flowers or seeds. Keep in mind that there are flowerless plants that nonetheless make seeds. These plants are called gymnosperms, such as conifers.
Be careful not to create a misconception that flowers are needed to produce seeds. The plant world has plants that have no flowers or seeds, others that have seeds but no flowers and others that have both flowers and seeds.

11. Picture of a bryophyte, specifically a hornwort
Picture of a bryophyte, specifically a hornwort. Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) do not have flowers or seeds and they are non-vascular so they also lack roots and are anchored to the soil by specialized hair cells. They reproduce by spores, not seeds.

12. Picture of a bryophyte, specifically a liverwort
Picture of a bryophyte, specifically a liverwort. Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) do not have flowers or seeds and they are non-vascular so they also lack roots and are anchored to the soil by specialized hair cells. They reproduce by spores, not seeds.

13. Picture of various bryophytes and ferns.

14. Picture of a fern. Ferns are flowerless (and also seedless) plants that reproduce by spores.

15. Ferns are often used as house plants.

16. Do these plants make seeds?
Leading question. The preceding slides have established that the bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, hornworts) and ferns do not have flowers or seeds. This slide raises the question of seeds. Seed production is found in flowering plants (the angiosperms) and also in non-flowering plants (the gymnosperms). Some gymnosperms, like the Ginkgo (or Maidenhair) tree, produce primitive flowers with male flowers on a separate tree from the female flowers. The flowers are really gametophytes and will produce eggs and sperm. The Ginkgo “fruit” is really the female gametophyte which is usually fertilized by the sperm carrying pollen or male gametophyte, just before it drops. This fallen, fertilized female gametophyte (really a seed at this point and only popularly called a “fruit”) will develop into a new sporophyte (either a male or female tree).

17. Picture of the underside of fern leaves showing the sori (singular: sorus). These structures contain the sporangia and produce spores.

18. Another picture of the underside of a fern leaf showing the sori.

19. A close-up view of the sori on the underside of a fern leaf
A close-up view of the sori on the underside of a fern leaf. The sori contain the sporangia which produce spores.