| Explore | Plants need sun, water, and air to live, it possible for them to live without soil, plants produce seeds that get to different places by wind to grow, or the can be sold to be planted and grown, some plants grow inside and some plants grow outside, some plants can grow inside or outside, and there are many different kinds of plants. How do people harvest seeds to sell them? Why dose it take longer for plants about the same size to grow? |
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| Research Question | How dose the amount of fertilizer effect how fast the plant grows? |
| Predictions | If we add three different amounts of the fertilizer mixture (that we are going to make and will consist of half a teaspoon of fertilizer and 900 ml of water) half a teaspoon, half a tablespoon, one tablespoon, and a controlled group of peas and corn with no fertilizer mixture just water, then the peas and corn that we add one tablespoon of fertilizer mixture to tray number two so the plants in tray number two will grow for peas and corn will grow the fastest because fertilizer helps plants grow, so the more fertilizer mixture we put the faster the peas and corn will grow. |
| Experimental Design | 1. Mix 900 ml off water with half a teaspoon of fertilizer to make your fertilizer mixture 2. Cut 4-5 paper towels to fit the trays 3. Place 3 pea seeds in four of the eight trays (space them out evenly) 4. Place 3 corn seeds in the other four of the eight trays (space them out evenly) 5. Put half of a teaspoon of the fertilizer mixture into the first tray with peas in it 6. Do step 5 again to the fist tray with the corn in it 7. Put half of a tablespoon of the fertilizer mixture into the second tray with the peas in it 8. Do step 7 again to the second tray with the corn in it 9. Put one tablespoon of fertilizer mixture into the third tray with the peas in it 10. Do step 9 again to the third tray with corn in it 11. Put water into the fourth tray with the peas in it 12. Do step 11 again to the fourth tray with corn in it 13. Measure the growth of each plant every day (record the average for the peas and the corn in the peas and corn data tables) 14. Repeat steps 5-13 every day |
| Conclusion | Fertilizer affects the plants depending on how much fertilizer you give them and how fast they try to take in the fertilizer because the corn must have tried to take it in faster (it takes 15-24 hour) but two much fertilizer can clog the roots in the plant so the plant can not grow because it can not take in water as a result corn grew more as the amount of fertilizer we added decreased. But fertilizer affect the corn slightly differently because fertilizer can suddenly increase growth at the beginning of plant growth which is what we saw for peas with 1tbs. But you are supposed to put fertilizer following the instructions about the amount of fertilizer to put and how frequently to put it based on the type of fertilizer you have we did not do either of these things. We instead watered with fertilizer every time we water our plants based on when it looked like they needed water. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | Middle School Students (grades 6,7,8) |
| School Name | DeWitt Middle School |
| Session | Fall 2019 |