the little seed

Little Lion duo captures top seed
ALTOONA ― State College's Alexa Gregoryand Corinne Jonesearned the top seed in the District 6 Class AAA tennis doubles championships, which begin at 9 a.m. on Friday.

Gregory and Jones will meet Altoona's Kirsten Messner and Vanessa Schmitt in Friday's quarterfinal round. The Lady Little Lions' third-seeded team of Abbie Swobodaand Jill Bontrager will meet Hollidaysburg's Brittany Dwyer and Alex Davies in the quarterfinals.

The District 6 Class AAA team tennis championships will begin on Oct. 15, when the third-seeded Lady Little Lions face No. 2 Hollidaysburg at 3:30 p.m. in Altoona. The winner will meet top-seeded Altoona on Oct. 17.

SCHOLASTICDIGEST

Girls' soccer

Nicholson leads Lady Little Lions

AdvertisementSTATE COLLEGE ―Carley Nicholsonscored two goals and had a pair of assists as State College shut out Hollidaysburg 5-0 Saturday night at Memorial Field.

The Lady Little Lions took a 3-0 lead at the half on goals from Nicholson,Emily Petersand Chrissy Cooper,while Devyn Leeextended the lead in second with her goal off a Nicholson assist. Nicholson ended the scoring with her second goal in the 71st minute as State College improved to 14-1 on the season.

Boys' cross country

State College fares well at Steel City meet

COATESVILLE ― State College finished 13th among 43 teams participating in the 43rd annual Steel City Invitational on Saturday.

The Little Lions finished with 338 points. Host Coatesville won with 101.

Paul Kernfeld's44th-place finish led State College. He covered the 3.1-mile course in 18 minutes, 8 seconds. Other top Little Lion finishers were:Kyle Ragan(46th, 18:11), Paul Crowe(81st, 18:47), Paul Wells (86th, 18:52),Christian Peoples (89th, 18:59) andColby Brindle (91st 19:01).



The fall brings the opportunity to collect ripe acorns, the fruit of the oak tree, for science classroom activities or home-based science projects. Botanically, the acorn is a nut containing a single seed encased in a tough leathery shell. Acorns of the northern red oak, Quercus rubra, the most common oak species in central Maine, provide fodder for studies of seed dormancy and germination.

Students can collect acorns, test them for viability by flotation, and study stratification and germination. Many excellent science fair projects have sprouted from classroom activities involving acorns.

Collecting acorns

Acorns of northern red oak take two years to mature. They are best collected as soon as they fall from the tree (early September in central Maine), since acorns left on the ground for any length of time will be eaten by animals or infested with disease. In fact, only one in 500 acorns survives to become an oak seedling. No wonder oak trees produce so many acorns!

Second-year acorns are brown and often detached from their cap; first-year acorns that have dropped prematurely are green and typically remain capped. Although the first-year nuts will not germinate, you may want to let the students collect them and discover this for themselves. Also, acorns with small holes drilled by weevils or other insects are not likely to grow.

The proportion of viable seed can be increased by removing defective, hollow or partially consumed acorns. This is done by simple flotation. Place the collected acorns in a bucket of water and discard the ones that float.

Stratification and germination

Stratification is the process of pretreating seeds to simulate natural conditions that must occur before germination is possible. Ripened red oak seeds contain a dormant embryo that must be exposed to winter's cold before germination is possible. This ensures that the seedling will not emerge until spring when conditions favor growth.

Stratifying acorns involves refrigeration between 32 and 40 degrees F for 30 to 90 days. During this time the acorns should be stored in plastic bags containing a moist mixture of sand or sand and peat. Be sure to keep the bags sealed to prevent loss of moisture. Use only new materials to avoid infecting the acorns with fungus disease.

After 30 days the acorns should be inspected every few days to detect root emergence, considered the first visible sign of germination. At each inspection, the total number of germinated seeds can be recorded. At 90 days, it can be assumed that all acorns capable of germinating have done so. (Although red oak acorns will germinate ― show root emergence ― after as little as 30 days of chilling, shoot growth will not occur until after a much longer period of chilling.)

Several aspects of stratification can be investigated. Teachers can help their students develop hypotheses from essential questions. Does acorn size or color affect seed viability or germination rate? Does stratification temperature affect percent germination? How does percent germination vary with stratification time? Does flotation of collected acorns remove only the nonviable seeds? Does presoaking the seeds in water improve percent germination?

Experiments then can be conducted to test these hypotheses, dividing the collected acorns into treatment groups, each with 10 to 50 acorns, depending on the number collected. Teachers can modify the experimental design, data collection and data analysis for different grade levels.

MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli beat Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko 6-2 7-5 in the first round of the Kremlin Cup on Monday.

The fifth-seeded Frenchwoman, making her debut in Moscow, won the opening set in 27 minutes but was tested in the second by the up-and-coming Bondarenko.

Bartoli, the highest seed in action on the first day of the $2.3 million indoor tournament, broke the 25th-ranked Ukrainian in the 12th game to clinch the win after one hour 46 minutes.

Bartoli, looking for her first title of the year, will face Vera Dushevina in the second round after the Russian wildcard knocked out Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 7-5 6-1.

Seventh seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland also advanced, dispatching France's Emilie Loit 6-4 6-1.

The top four seeds, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Anna Chakvetadze and Serena Williams, all received byes into the second round.

On the men's side, eighth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany had little trouble against American Justin Gimelstob 6-1 6-3 but sixth-seeded Italian Potito Starace was beaten by world number 111 Florent Serra of France 4-6 6-4 6-3.

Unseeded Czech Radek Stepanek saw off Russian wildcard Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-5 6-3 while Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic eliminated Sergio Roitman of Argentina 3-6 6-4 6-4.

Tipsarevic will meet the winner of Wednesday's first-round match between Britain's third seed Andy Murray and Russian teenager Evgeny Korolev.