| Explore | Before plants become plants, they are a seed which is a plant embryo found in the ovules and ovary of a plant. We know that seeds mostly require water, oxygen, light, and temperature to germinate and grow. In our previous experiment on radish seeds, we put our experimental group in a cooler temperature and compared it to our seeds grown in normal room tempertature. We found that the temperature of a seed's environment can greatly affect the growth of the seeds. This made us curious in knowing the effects different types of water would have on the germination and growth of a seed. |
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| Research Question | What is the effect of sugar water vs. tap water on the growth of seeds over 7 days? We came up with this because we both realized that water is one of the most important things needed for germination and wanted to see if it would affect the seeds the same if not more than temperature. This also allowed us to improve some parts of our experiment because of the knowledge we got from our previous one. |
| Predictions | We mainly predicted that the seeds with the sugar water will have trouble germinating and growing compared to the seeds with tap water since sugar isn't naturally found in soil or water meaning it could have an effect of the growth of the seed. |
| Experimental Design | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cdUtUM7-0EED6bLE5rpn9GnCwM7mc7my/view?usp=drivesdk |
| Conclusion | In conclusion, when 20 mL of water is mixed with 2 g of sugar in the experimental group and 20 mL of water is added in the control group with coriander seeds at the subject of the lab, the experimental group will germinate less than the control group. The results turned out this way as sugar is unnatural within soil, therefore stunting the growth of the coriander seeds. Without the sugar, the seeds gains all of the nutrients needed to germinate, as seeds’ fundamental needs for growth is water, light, and appropriate temperature. One successful feature within our lab was the positive growth of the control group seeds, which had a total average growth of 3.8 cm. One area of improvement would include testing a different independent variable in order to promote more growth within the experimental group, which only grew an average of 2.35 cm. For a future experiment, the independent variable of sugar can be replaced with the independent variable of pH, which provides beneficial nutrients for the germination of the seeds. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| Teacher Name | Amy Inselberger |
| School Name | Adlai E. Stevenson High School |
| Session | Fall 2021 |