| Explore | We recently started learning about plants and we wish to learn more throughout the project. |
|---|---|
| Research Question | Does increased fertilizer content within soil cause a plant to be more fertile (produces more seeds in a more efficient/faster rate)? |
| Predictions | We are hoping that the fertilizer will increase speed, growth efficiency, and amount of seeds and seed pods. To test this we will be measuring height avg, number of flowers, number of true leaves, number of pods, size of pods avg, size of flowers avg, and at the end the number of seeds. |
| Experimental Design | 1. Assemble the Bottle Growing System with the top inverted like a funnel. The bottle cap with water wick is seated in the bottle reservoir that will hold the water and nutrients. Identify which bottle will have high and low nutrient levels, and label top of plastic with a Sharpie. 2. The bottle funnel was filled with root media. 3. Osmocote pellets were added: 6 pellets in the low nutrient treatment (1 pellet per plant), and 24 pellets in high nutrients (4 pellets per plant). Spread evenly across surface. Control (2 pellets per plant) 4. 4 heaping tablespoons of slightly moistened 50:50 mixture of Vermiculite "seedling starter" mix was added. 5. Six fast plant seeds were evenly spread out over the soil surface in a circular fashion. 6. The seed with two tablespoons of Vermiculite was covered. 7. The bottles containing high and low nutrient treatments were labeled. 8. The entire root medium was soaked well with water and it began to drip from the base of the wick. It was then Poured off and filled with sufficient water to reach the bottle cap on the growing funnel. 9. Caution was used when picking up and handling the bottle growth system making sure the water reservoir was not dropped. 10. The bottle growing systems were placed in a plant light box with a foil cover with light on 24 hours per day. |
| Conclusion | |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | Derby High School |
| Session | Spring 2017 |
