| Explore | We know Plants need sunlight to grow and need our water to make them grow because they don't have their own water. We discovered that plants don't have roots and they need rain or people's water. The questions about plants that interest me are how does water travel through plants? Also, why do plants need sunlight to grow? - JD From my prior knowledge, I know that different types of plants are ready to be harvested at different times a year. - IA |
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| Research Question | How does rainwater compared to faucet water change the growth of basil plants? |
| Predictions | A prediction we could make is that because faucet water is more filtered, it would help the plants grow to a larger height. Since rainwater comes straight from the sky, bacterias and minerals could easily go into the rain while it comes down making it worse for a plant. |
| Experimental Design | We fill half bottles of water with the same type of soil. You also take 5 half bottles with soil and evenly put 6-8 basil seeds and then cover the seeds with soil. You would take the other half of the bottle and fill it with a type of water. The type of water can change between tap/faucet water and rainwater. 2 bottles are using rainwater, and 2 other bottles are using faucet water. There will be 1 bottle that has nothing changed about it so we can see how the plant is supposed to grow under regular conditions. When you are finished with this, you place your bottles under a light that replicates the energy generated from the sun. We can record the difference in growth with seeds that use different types of water every day for 5 weeks. |
| Conclusion | That the rainwater made the plant grow faster than the sink water plants and we thought the opposite. That the rain probably had more nutrients inside than the sink because the sink water is most likely filtered. Because the rainwater plants grew faster than the sink one in like a day. I guess just testing longer to see if the sink water plants would catch up with the rainwater plants. RA |
| Investigation Theme | AFW |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| Teacher Name | Brian Mulcahey |
| School Name | Catholic Memorial School |
| Session | Fall 2021 |