Good effort, and a nice report. For what its’ worth here’s a few suggestions.

1. You don’t really need to frame the justification for your experiment in terms of trying to solve the world’s food problems. Most experiments take a small, manageable problem to test (which is what you did), and then relate the results to what’s already known, but also on a small scale. So maybe you can think of a justification for the experiment which is not quite so broad?
2. Don’t discount the results with the clay. If the plants did not grow well in clay, then that is a result which might mean something interesting.
3. It might be nice to show your plant height measurements as a graph of height over time.
4. Can you conclude anything about the temperature in the various soils?
5. I notice that over time, some of the plants seem to be shrinking in height. Why would that be?
6. Could you speculate about why the shaver soil was the best? Is there anything in your observations that would back up that speculation?

Anyway, well done!

Hi team. Looks like you’ve got some results! Just to help me understand what you’ve done, you have planted seeds of radish, two per pot,  in each soil type (loamy, shaver, mulch)? I’m glad that you’re making detailed observations of the plants and soil appearance, and taking measurements like plant height and soil temperature. What would you conclude so far? Are you recording anything else, such as how often each pot is watered? How long will you conduct the experiment?

All for now. Good job!

Hi Unknown Four! Great to be included in your project. I’ve got quite a bit of experience in working with plants and soils, having worked on horticultural crops for many years. I also like general science, gardening, drumming, writing, and making video games (with science themes, of course).

Now, your turn. Maybe you could tell me a bit about yourselves? Your likes (and dislikes), ambitions, and favorite subjects in school?

I really like the topic of your project. Not all soils are created equal, and different plants might prefer different soils. And of course, maintaining soil health is key to our survival as a species!

I do have one comment though. I read in your Project Information/Experimental Design you would test four soils, and that each of you would take a different soil. Although that sounds logical, it’s not a good idea from an experimental point of view. For example, what if Naomi planted her seeds very deep in her soil, but William planted his seeds very shallow? Or Marvin watered his in the morning, and Angela watered hers in the afternoon? Already, you have introduced bias into the experiment, which could affect the outcome. The trick is to try to keep everything the same for all the treatments, except for the factor being tested, in this case, type of soil.

So, I suggest that you divide up the tasks differently. One of you do all the planting, another do all the watering, another take height measurements (as an example), another take notes, and so on. But you should ALL make visual observations, and then pool them. What does the soil look like? What do the plants look like? I can’t stress enough the importance of observation in science.

Lots of questions to think about – how many plants for each type of soil? What will be the volume of soil? Will it be fertilized? How often will you water? As you plan your experiment, keep me posted and let me know how I can help!

David