Looks like you are in the final stages of your projects.

It’s great to see that teams from your school are wrapping up and posting conclusions. Enjoy the final stages of your project, and feel free to post any final comments or questions you have for your mentors.

You have until Tuesday, April 25, 2021, for final posts to be added, so please be sure to thank your fellow teammates soon!

Hello Tree-m Team~
It was a pleasure to work with all of you – Jemimah, Ava, Summer, Camille and Samanta!  Though the results were not what were expected, that is research (the continual search for new information) and science.  You did gain information from the experiments and are walking away with an experience that showed you the fun aspect of science.

Wishing you all the best.

Dr. Marsh

Hello Dr. Marsh

It was a pleasure working with you, and we just want to let you know how our experiment went. So, unfortunately, our results didn't match our hypothesis. Basically, our healthiest tree (Siggy) had its leaves rot the fastest while our unhealthiest tree's (Barnaby) leaves rotted the slowest. Perhaps that because of the species of tree we worked on or that's just how leaf rot works. It was definitely an interesting final result. So perhaps the opposite of our hypothesis is true.

Just a reminder that this was our hypothesis: "The leaves/branches from the healthiest tree will die the least or the slowest because they have enough nutrients and necessities stored to last a while. The leaves/branches from the least healthy tree will die the fastest and in the worst way because they don't have as much support left in them once cut off from the tree."

Also, we wanted to let you know that we did a group presentation about our project and we believe that it went well. Our teacher liked our slides and the information we presented.

Again, thank you for being our mentor, we really enjoyed doing this project. Goodbye! <3

- Treem Team <3

Hi, Dr. Marsh,

Thanks so much for your work and contributions to this project! It was great to have you on the Treem Team and you gave some really invaluable feedback. Thank you so much!

Best wishes

-Summer, Treem Team <3

Hi Dr. Marsh,

Just wanted to say thank you for being our mentor and giving us great advice and feedback throughout this project. We had fun doing this experiment and we're sad that this is coming to an end. It was a pleasure working with you!

-Tree-m Team <3

Hello Dr.Marsh!

Today is the last day for our experiment and we just finished presenting! :)

We all enjoyed working with you, and valued your help and input throughout our experiment. It was wonderful working with you, and I wish you the best!

- Tree-m Tream <3

Hello again, Dr. Marsh,

Thank you for mentoring us and helping us with our experiment! It's been great being a part of Tree-m Team and having fun on this project! Our conclusion should be updated and Jemimah can go into more detail about the results.

Have a great weekend and again, thank you!

- Ava, Tree-m Team <3

Hi Dr. Marsh,

We are continuing to collect data in the same format as last time. Over half of our branches have developed what we think is a type of leaf rot, but it doesn’t seem to be developing in just the healthiest or least healthy branches (we saw it first in Siggy and now Willow and Dimitri have it). We can attach some pictures if you would like to take a look at it! Also, our school is going on Spring Break starting today, so we won’t be working too hard on the project.

~Tree-m Team <3

Hello Dr. Marsh, Tree-m Team here!

We have started collecting data on our cut branches. Since our branches/twigs were cut on the 16th around 1:00pm, that’s what we consider the start time for our experiment and we are collecting data and making observations daily at that time. We record the health of the leaves using the healthometer and the amount of leaves left of the branch; we also take notes and pictures on how the branches are looking/if they are drying out/any other interesting qualitative data we find. In short, the healthiest of our trees (Siggy’s) leaves aren’t losing their green color but they are drying up and crinkling --  no leaves have fallen off yet but the leaf health has dropped from an initial 9.5 to an 8.5 on the healthometer. The branch from the second healthiest tree (Hazel’s) leaves are turning more yellow but once again none have fallen all the way off though a couple of the stems connecting leaves to the branch are looking quite weak (healthometer 9 to 8). The third healthiest (Willow’s) branch is dehydrating, also turning more yellow, and starting to lose the small flowers that bloomed on it (healthometer 8 to 6.5). Our fourth healthiest (Dimitri’s) branch has significantly lightened in color and the places on the leaves that we brown before have dried completely and fallen off (healthometer 7 to 5.5). Our least healthy tree (Barnaby’s) sample is shedding its bark in places and the leaves are becoming more yellow, especially on the back of leaves where there is almost no green now, and the brown places have broken off (healthometer 6 to 5). If you would like to see more pictures or data we have it available!

P.S. We named our trees for convenience and there are initial pictures for each tree in files!

~Tree-m Team <3

Hello Tree-m

It looks good.  One suggestion when labeling would be to use colored string; that can be tied off/secure. Or make tags tied to string tie to the twig and tree. That may help organize cuttings and reduce potential errors in data collection (and/or loss of tags due to nature)..

Hope this helps.

Dr. Marsh

Hi, Dr. Marsh! We've officially made our Experimental Design! The brief version is above in the Experimental Design box, and we've uploaded our detailed steps and Health-O-Meter (to quantify the health of trees and leaves) in Files. Does everything look good? Should we include anything else?

This might be our last update for this week, so have a nice weekend!

~Tree-m Team <3

Happy Tuesday, Dr. Marsh! Alright, we have an update. We tweaked our research question a bit so we have a solid independent variable, which is the health of the tree. So to be clear, we are going to take a cutting each from five trees of the same species but varying health and comparing how they rot from each tree. We also made some predictions and updated that section with how we hypothesize our results will be.

We can't wait to get started!

~ Tree-m team <3

Good afternoon, Dr. Marsh. Thank you for your advice! Our tentative research question is now our definite research question. We will be cutting the branches all the way off with clippers (or something) and comparing how the leaves on the branch and the leaves on the tree look. We are going to make some scales to quantify some of our variables (we're very good at making scales, we had so much fun last time).

Have a great weekend!

~ Tree-m Team <3

Happy Thursday! We've been doing some exploring to think about what we want to experiment with, and we came up with a few research questions. Right now, our top pick is "How does snapping or breaking a branch (or leaf, we're undecided) affect the health of that branch (or leaf)?" Finding a branch or twig or stem that has a cluster of leaves growing, or just a leaf with a stem by itself, we would break it just enough to make a dent but leave it on the tree. Theoretically, the leaves or the branch itself would rot and die due to the cut off of its necessities. We would measure how long it took for the leaves to completely die, and things like the color and size of the leaves. We have a lot of options with this question, like what specifically we would experiment on and what it would affect.

So, how does our tentative question sound? Is there anything else would should take into consideration, or does it sound like it is not feasible?

Thank you!

~ Tree-m Team <3

Hi Dr. Marsh! I just wanted to clarify some of the things you mentioned about what we wrote for the Explore. We actually did use multiple apps to try to find out what the anonymous tree was; the closest result we got was Laurus nobilis, but we didn't want to present false information because like we said, we're not entirely sure. By smaller trees, we meant those with thin trucks and not many leaves; for example, the yucca tree we mentioned has a very think trunk and is relatively small in comparison to a wild yucca or any other full-grown tree (which I believe is due to the fact that it is growing in a small pot). Green leaves on any of our trees would likely suggest that the tree is performing photosynthesis, but we decided that crispy, yellowed edges of leaves means it gets too much Sun.

As for the next stage of our project, we actually have no idea what we're doing yet. Of course, you'll be the first to know :)

Have a great weekend!

~ Tree-m Team <3

Hello Dr. Marsh, we’re here with our weekly update! We’ve started doing initial research on trees around our houses and we recorded information about them such as tree diameter, observation on the tree’s health (we noted things like peeling bark, broken or dry leaves, exposed roots, etc.), and used an online analysis tool to obtain estimates for tree benefits (such as CO2 absorbed or stormwater intercepted). More information about the trees we observed is located under the Explore tab under Info!

Hello, my name is Samanta, and I'm a speaker for the group! I like playing online multiplayer games and drawing, and hope we have a good time with this project! 

Hello, I'm Summer, I'm the Speaker for the team so it's my job to keep you and Ms. Davis up to date! A warm welcome to the tree-m team! All of us here were together for the planting science potato project (team Couch Potatoes). I'm the team's resident emo kid - I like also Legend of Zelda and knitting. Excited to work with you!

Hi! I'm Camille. I am the recorder of the group, which means that I am in charge of inputting information in the Project Info. I like to listen to music, play video games, and go hiking. We did another Planting Science project about the growth of bacteria on potatoes. It's really nice to meet you!

Hi, I'm Ava! Welcome to our ~chaotic~ yet ~fun~ Tree-m Team (get it, instead of Dream Team). For the group, I'm the Manager/Facilitator, so hi. I really like to read, do yoga (and other fitness-related stuff), and watch lots of movies. We recently did a Planting Science in which we explored how bacteria grows on potatoes; they liked our project so much that we are featured as an example on the website (if you go to Star Project Gallery, we were Couch Potato). Anyway, it's nice to work with you! How should we address you?

Hello, I'm Jemimah. I will be the reflector for this group, this means I will make sure that we all agree on a decision, that we're all participating, that we're all respecting each other, and seeing how well we're doing with the project.

I like Dungeons & Dragons, Minecraft, and other nerd games.

On our last project for Planting Science, we explored how bacteria grows on potatoes, we were named "Couch Potato <3".

Now, how would you like to be addressed, like if you have a PhD, would you like to be addressed as doctor?

Welcome to your PlantingScience project page!

Welcome to this community of plant researchers. As your team plans and conducts your own research project, you will be mentored by a scientist. The mentor's role is to encourage and guide you through the process of scientific discovery. The more you share your ideas and research information online, the more your mentor can help. You can also find out more about your mentor. What is their research about? Why did they go into science? What do they like to do when they are not working?

You may also hear from this classroom’s assigned scientist liaison. Liaisons work with several mentors and help make sure the conversations are going strong. They may also offer some extra advice or encouragement.

Two resources can help you get started:

• Student Roadmap
• Plant Investigation Toolkit

Best wishes as you start this scientific journey. We are all pleased to share this experience with you. Have fun!

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• Choose your project team name. Need inspiration? Visit the project gallery to see other student teams.
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