| Explore | Plants convert Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen. They also obtain food by a process of photosynthesis. Plants can vary depending on the environment it's planted at. |
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| Research Question | Does the amount of fertilizer affect the color and size of a plant? We came up with this question because we wondered about the color of our plants (just in general) and if fertilizer really does anything. This question fits with our experiment because we are using different amounts of fertilizer to compare three plants. |
| Predictions | We believe the High fertilized plant will grow the largest, and will have a dark green color. The Low fertilized plant with be the smallest of the group, and will most likely be a light green plant. The control plant will be the middle of the group, and seems like it would be the green that is not too dark and not too bright. We think this will happen because of the amount of sunlight and energy the plant will have. The colors will change because of the chlorophyll, and the size will change because of the fertilizer pellets. |
| Experimental Design | Before beginning the experiment, the team assembled a Bottle Growing System in which a water bottle is cut in half. The bottom half is filled with water, while the top (inverted like a funnel) holds the plants. The bottle cap with a water wick is at the bottom of the funnel. Identify the high nutrient, low nutrient and control plants. The group then filled the funnel with root media. First, they added 5 tablespoons of Vermiculite. Then, they added Osmocote pellets: 3 pellets in the low nutrient planet (1 pellet per plant), and 12 pellets in the high nutrients (4 pellets per plant). After that, they added 4 tablespoons of slightly moistened 50:50 mixture of Vermiculite "seeding starter" mix. Three fast plant seeds were spread evenly across the surface. Then they were covered with two tablespoons of Vermiculite. The surface was then smoothed over the surface of the rim. They then labelled the bottles with tape and a Sharpie, with the type of plant and their group name. Next, they soaked the root medium well with water. They knew it was ready when the base of the wick was dripping. Then, they filled the reservoir with enough water to touch the bottle cap. The plants were then placed in a light box atop foil. A light was left on 24 hours a day. All variables remained constant; the plants were kept at the same temperature and given the same amount and quality of water. The only variable tested for was how the amount of fertilizer affected color and size of a plant. Data was recorded by measuring both the tallest plant and average of all plants in one pot. Plants were measured during class. |
| Conclusion | |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | Derby High School |
| Session | Spring 2017 |
