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What do we know about plants from our experiences outside of school?:
Plants grow and change depending on the seasons due to the changing environment. Also, plants are very picky with their surroundings and cannot live if things aren’t exactly right. There are varieties of plants that can be planted based on the living spaces that are provided
Plants depend on the pollen that is transferred by insects that land on the plant and take with them the pollen to the next plant they reach. Plants may not all exist in one region, the seeds of the plant could be spread through wind, birds, and other methods which causes the plants to grow in other regions as well. The growth of plants may also be caused by the overgrowing of weeds which are invasive species.
What have we discovered in class and background research?:
Plants are able to reproduce both sexually and asexually. Sexual plant reproduction involves the process of pollination - the transfer of the male gamete (sperm is found in pollen) to the pistil of a female plant. Asexual reproduction can be split into two categories: apomixis, and vegetative reproduction. Apomixis is the process of producing seeds without fertilization, plants such as dandelions and blackberries apoximize. Vegetative reproduction on the other hand, is when a new plant grows from modified parts or fragments of parent plants. Various methods of vegetative reproduction include runners, bulbs, tubers, corms, suckers, plantlets, and keikis. There are also artificial ways plants are able to vegetatively reproduce with the help of farmers, these ways include cutting, grafting, layering, suckering, tissue culture, and offsetting.
What questions about plants interest us?:
How did scientists come up with the idea of cutting and tissue culture? What are the long-lasting effects of genetically modifying plants? By genetically modifying plants, are we causing for the original plant to no longer be existent in the future? Does genetically modifying plants harm humans because of the change in the plant’s original DNA?
Takeaways From Student Roadmap:
Make connections between the experiment and what you already know.
Work with your team to brainstorm some ideas and questions that come up about the experiment (no matter the simpleness or unnecessary the question is, it is still valid)
Don't worry about your initial observations and ideas, they're bound to change!
--> Temporary placeholders: inferences and predictions that change once you collect more data.
Potato Observations:
10/9/2020 (day 1):
Texture: Firm
Condensation: Present
Lengths: No change
Weight: Unavailable
Smell: Tolerable
Shape: Normal
Leaking: Absent
10/10/2020 (day 2):
Texture: Still quite firm
Condensation: Damper
Lengths: No change
Weight: Unavailable
Smell: Tolerable
Shape: Normal
Leaking: Absent
10/11/2020 (day 3):
Texture: Still quite firm
Condensation: A lot; fogging
Lengths: No change
Weight: Unavailable
Smell: Tolerable
Shape: Normal
Leaking: Absent
10/12/2020 (day 4):
Texture: Still quite firm
Condensation: A lot; fogging
Lengths: No change
Weight: Unavailable
Smell: Tolerable
Shape: Normal
Leaking: Absent
10/13/2020 (day 5):
Taken out of the bag
* Potato 1:
Large mold growths on the
potato and mold on the
paper towel
* Potato 2:
Looks pretty normal but it
leaked yellow liquid.
* Potato 3:
Minor mold growths on the
potato and mold on the
paper towel.
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day 7 observation updates
Today I, Serena the experimenter, cut open the potato for the final day of observation. Compared to the previous days, today's bags did not contain as much condensation in them. Potato one and potato three had a sewer like smell, but was mostly toned down; the smell was still bearable. Potato two however had a horrid smell. The smell consisted of something along the lines of stool and sewer waste that was left in the bag for a month.
+ When I opened the bag for potato one i noticed that there wasn't much increase of mold growth compared to yesterday (photo provided in files) and the potato was relatively firm. There were lots of changes to the external physical features of the potato. The potato started off smooth, but by day 7 there were a lot of odd bumps and wrinkles that surrounded it (photo provided in files) . When i was cutting into the potato, it felt solid like as if it was not sick and over all the inside looked unharmed (photo provided in files) .
+ For potato two, as soon as I opened the bag I immediately smelled the disgusting odor of the potato as described earlier. The towel was stained with a darker yellow liquid ( I am unsure of what the yellow liquid is) but I believe that was the factor that made the potato smell worse (photo provided in files). The tip of the potato was really squishy and is the only proof out of three potatoes that showed that there was in internal physical change (photo provided in files) , that the potato actually got sick. But besides the tip there was nothing wrong with the rest of the potato.
+ The third potato had about the same external physical appearances as potato one, but this potato was less bumpy and had fewer wrinkles (photo provided in files). The potato was firm and the internal physical features was similar to potato one. According to my observations, potato three seemed to be the healthiest out of the three (in physical appearance) As for the napkin this potato is in second place for the most stains/mold growth, behind potato two.
To summarize this up, potato two got the most sick and released the worse smell along with some yellow stains, potato one had the most external physical changes but the least amount of mold growth on the napkins, and potato three was the healthiest out of three potatoes with no squishy points and the least amount of bumps and wrinkles on the skin, though there was a lot of mold growth in the corner of the napkin (photo provided in files)
This concludes our experimental observations, but i have some questions regarding the experiment that I hope you are able to get back to me on:
- Since not all of the potatoes got sick the same way, is there a factor that stops or stunts the potato from getting sick if they were all inoculated the same way?
- Does external bacteria (such as the ones in the air) affect the potato once taken out of the bag?
- Does the moisture in the bag have to do something with the growth of bacteria?
I am very curious about these factors and I hope to get an answer soon. |