| Explore | We know that the main things plants need to grow is sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and other nutrients like Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, and Magnesium. These can be considered micro nutrients and macro nutrients. The reason plants need these nutrients is to complete their life cycle, build structure, and to help them perform specific functions. |
|---|---|
| Research Question | What is the effect of high and low nutrients on the size of a plants true leaves? |
| Predictions | If plants need nutrients to grow, then the higher nutrient ones will grow healthier and better than the others because it will have more of a possibility of containing all the nutrients it needs rather than the low nutrient ones. |
| Experimental Design | 1)Place approx 4T of vermiculite into the funnel of the planter. Keep the wick standing upright. The top of the wick should end at the top of vermiculite. 2)Label one planter “ higher” and one “ lower”. Randomly scatter six pellets of fertilizer into the low and 24 pellets into the high. 3)Evenly spread approx 5T of 50:50 seed starter. Mix on top of the vermiculite and fertilizer. 4) Use a planting template to evenly space six seeds in each planter. 5)Evenly spread 2T of the vermiculite over the seeds. 6)Evenly water the planter with water from the white bottles. Let the planter drain for a few minutes into the reservoir then discard the soiled water. 7)Using the water bottles, pour enough water to reach the cap on the bottom of the planter, Record the amount of water added to the reservoir. Each black mark on the bottle is equal to 50 ml. 8)Place planter in a grow chamber with the light on the bottle 9)Every couple of days, measure the lengths of each leaf and record. --> We will test how the nutrients will affect the size of the leaf depending on high nutrients or low. We will keep the water amount, light, and soil the same. To Record the data we will measure the sizes of the leaves when we have class. Using this information, we will compare our data to find the fertilizer’s effect on leaf size between high nutrient plants and the low nutrient plants. |