Happy Halloween!

I took a look at what you wrote for your project and want to make a couple of suggestions. In the third bullet of “explore”, you say if plants are given minerals, water, and light, then they cannot survive without sunlight. If they have a light source (sunlight or artificial), then they can survive. I may have misread your statement here.

Are you choosing this experiment because you think it will be easy to do or because you are curious about the outcome? I recommend asking a question that satisfies your curiosity and then building an experiment around what is feasible, opposed to the opposite.

In your predictions, you say the plant without nutrients will grow at a normal rate, but what is a normal rate? What is this rate compared to the rate of the plants receiving nutrients?

In your experimental design, be more specific. How much fertilizer (i.e. concentration, volume)? Are you planting each seed in different pots, or are you planting 3 seeds in one pot per treatment? How much time will you wait? How will you quantify the effects (for example, measure plant height, dry weight, fresh weight)? How will you keep these variables constant? Etc.

Is your conclusion based on your predictions? If so, wait until you have results before you write this portion.

Your group is off to a great start! Try to think of these suggestions before beginning your experiment so you can carry it out as easily as possible. Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions about your experimental design or in general!

Hello everyone! My name is Lara and I will be the mentor for your group. I am a PhD student in the Plant Biology Department at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. I study the medicinal, nutritional, and agricultural benefits of a tuber (similar to a potato) that grows in the Andes Mountains in Ecuador.

I enjoy hiking, reading and writing, and of course mentoring. I am excited to hear about who you are and start working with you! Feel free to ask any questions.