Planting Science - Projects: The Three Sprouts
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The Three Sprouts

Project by group dmsgrayfall2022


Info

Explore Pepper seedlings are pretty easy to look for, as they have different characteristics than other plants. It takes anywhere from a week to a month for a pepper seed to germinate. Once the sprout is above the soil, it has 2 green leaves at the top of the stem. The leaves are narrow and pointy (they...
Research Question How does the amount of sand in the soil affect how tall the seed grows?
Predictions The variables are all sand, no sand, or half sand, half soil. My prediction is that all sand is going to make the plant tallest because one of our sources stated that pepper plants thrive in sand. Also, a pepper plant likes a well drained, loamy soil and sand provides that.
Experimental Design INVESTIGATION PLAN: Pot #1: 2/3 cup of sand Pot #2: 2/3 cup of soil Pot #3: 1/3 cup of sand, 1/3 cup of soil MATERIALS LIST: 3 small pots 6 red bell pepper seeds altogether for each trial (18 for 3 trials) Water Growth light or window Sand Garden soil Temperature around 70...
Conclusion CLAIM: The half sand, half soil plant grew the tallest. EVIDENCE: The half soil, half sand plant is 3.9 cm, compared to the all soil plant which is 3 cm, and the all sand plant as 2.5 cm. It was the first plant to sprout and each plant in each trial sprouted. Also, they were the only ones...
About this Project This team showed a lot of interest in their project! They were determined to set up a good experiment, used their mentors suggestions and asked a lot of good questions. - Evelyn Gray, Teacher

The team were consistent with their communication. For every step they took, they...

Updates

Get to know your team’s scientist mentor, who will encourage and guide you through the scientific process of discovery. The more you share your ideas and research info, the more your mentor can help. You may also hear from a scientist mentor liaison who will be helping all the teams in your class.
PlantingScience Staff
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PlantingScience Staff
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PlantingScience Staff
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Katie M. Becklin
said

Hi team!

It looks like you did a great job summarizing your experiment on your storyboard. Poster presentations like that one are a common way that scientists share their results with other people. In fact, three students in my lab presented posters at conferences this summer. It looks like you are already developing the skills to be excellent scientists! Congratulations on an successful experiment!

I enjoyed working with all of you and I hope that you continue to learn about the amazing world of plants.

Cheers, Katie

Grace
said

Hi Katie,

I have enjoyed working with you on our experiment. You have given us wonderful advice and asked questions that have significantly helped us with our observations. 

Thank you for everything!

Grace, Alex, and Dylan

Grace
said

Hi Katie,

The picture below is our storyboard we created as a summary. The information that is on it answers your questions. 

 

Grace

Grace
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Grace
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Katie M. Becklin
said

Also, as you wrap things up I encourage you to keep the following questions in mind...

  1. Did your results support your hypothesis? Was there anything surprising about your results?
  2. Based on your experiment, what recommendations would you give to someone who wanted to grow this plant species in their garden?
  3. If you could go back and do this experiment again, what would you do differently? Are there other questions you would want to test?

Cheers, Katie

Katie M. Becklin
said

Hi team!

It looks like you made excellent progress on your project. I really like that you decided to measure multiple plant traits because I think that will give you a more complete picture of your treatment results. Now that you have all of this data, how are you planning to summarize the results to share with others? Scientists often make graphs comparing the average results across treatments. Why do you think that approach helps someone else understand what you did and found?

Cheers, Katie

Grace
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Grace
said

Hi Katie, 

Our plants are looking great! Some are growing two more leaves and getting bigger. Today is our last observation. Here it is:

Observations 11/11/22

  • Half sand, half soil length 3 cm

  • Half sand, half soil length 3.9 cm

  • Half sand, half soil length 2.8 cm

  • Sand length 2.5 cm

  • Sand no growth

  • Sand no growth

  • Soil length 2 cm

  • Soil length 3 cm

  • Soil length .3 cm

  • All plants green and healthy 

  • Watered all plants today

  • 12/18 plants sprouted

  • Some plants are growing two additional leaves

 

Grace

Grace
said

Hi Katie,

Here is our update on our plants. All of the half sand, half soil sprouted, only 2 of the full sand sprouted and 3 of the full soil sprouted. Also, this is our data from our plants today:

Observations 11/9/22

  • Sand length 2 cm

  • No growth on the other to sand plots

  • Half and half 3.5 cm

  • Half and half 4.6 cm

  • Half and half 3.1 cm

  • Soil 3.4 cm

  • Soil 3.0 cm

  • No growth

  • Watered all plants today

  • 11/18 plants sprouted

  • No new sprouts

  • All plants are healthy and green

Grace

Grace
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Grace
said

Hi Katie, 

Today, two of the plants that are in the half sand, half soil sprouted as seen in the picture below. In addition to measuring plant height and color, we are going to measure how many days it takes for the seed to sprout and the percentage of seeds as well. Thanks for your advice!

 

Grace

 

Grace
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Katie M. Becklin
said

Hi team,

Congratulations on starting your experiment! It can take several days before the plants emerge, so don't worry if you don't see plants quite yet.

Plant height is a good variable to measure. You might want to consider collecting other types of data as well. For example, keeping track of how long it takes for the seedlings to emerge and the percentage of seeds that result in seedlings could be interesting to know. When the plants start growing, you might also consider measuring other indicators of plant growth in addition to height. I encourage you to use your observational skills to write down as many things about your plants as you can!

Keep me posted on your progress!

Katie

Grace
said

Hi Katie, 

This is our plan for watering and making observations:

  • We will water them everyday and about 15 milliliters for the pots with sand and 10 milliliters for the pots with soil
  • Some precautions for our plant will be poking holes in the bottom for drainage
  • When our plants sprout, we will measure the height with the ruler.

Grace

Alex
said

Hi Katie,

Here's our observations from yesterday and today:

Yesterday: 

  • The plant has not sprouted yet
  • The soil and sand is moist

Today:

  • No sprout on any of the pepper plants
  • Watered each plant today

Alex

Grace
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Katie M. Becklin
said

Hi team,

I noticed that you switched your question slightly and updated your project plan. With all those new details it sounds like you are ready to begin. Have you started your experiment yet? In addition to plant height, what else could you observe or measure on your plants? 

Keep me posted on your progress.

Cheers, Katie

    Grace
    said

    Hi Katie,

    Before we planted the seeds, we grew them in petri dishes with wet paper towels for 4 days because pepper seeds take longer to grow. We have planted our seeds today in pots and hope to see growth sometime soon. We have decided to observe the color of the plant along with the height. 

    Grace

Grace
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Grace
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Grace
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Grace
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Grace
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Grace
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Evelyn Gray
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Grace
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Katie M. Becklin
said

Hi team,

I really like your research questions, especially the first one. There are a lot of different types of soils and organic matter one of the most common ways that soils can vary. I actually measure this soil characteristic in my own research. The agronomist who came your class might have talked about adding organic matter to "improve" soils for plant growth. I encourage you to do some research online to learn more about why organic matter might be important for plants. You might even find that soil microbes play an important role in this process!

Now for the practical side of things...how will you design your experiment? It may be important to start with a baseline soil that doesn't have much organic matter so that you can control how much you add to each pot. What other things might you want to control when designing your experiment?

Cheers, Katie

Grace
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Grace
said

Hi Katie, 

We have come up with a couple questions we are thinking about investigating.

1. Does the amount of organic material in the soil affect plant growth?
2. Does the type of fertilizer affect plant growth?
3. Does the condition of the seed (cracked, damaged) affect plant growth?

What do you think about them? We are leaning toward doing the first one. 

Grace
said

Yesterday, an agronomist came into our classroom to talk about what he does as an agronomist. I thought that the way they can use other plants natural chemicals to kill a disease or a bug on the plant was really cool. What do you think?

Dylan
said

The coolest thing I know about plants is that one plant can have hundreds of uses like wheat can be so many different things.

Katie M. Becklin
said

Something that makes plants unique compared to most organisms is that they can turn carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (air) and into sugar molecules. Most other organisms can't make their own sugars...they have to get sugars from the food they eat. So really, plants from the foundation for other organisms to survive in ecosystems. How cool is that!

Cheers, Katie

Katie M. Becklin
said

Hi team,

It's great to meet you all! I'm curious to hear what you've been learning about plants in class. Do you have a favorite plant? What's the coolest thing you know about plants? 

I have a hard time picking a favorite plant, but I think it is really cool that the oldest organism on the planet is a tree. Some of the tree species that I work with in Colorado can be more than 2000 years old. There are other tree species that can be up to 5000 years old. Imagine what we could learn about the history of the earth if we could talk to these trees!

Cheers, Katie

    Grace
    said

    We've been learning about what essential nutrients plants need and if they come from the soil, air, or a water source (for example the plant can get Carbon from the soil or air). My favorite plant is probably a venus fly trap. They are unique because of the way they can catch flies. The coolest thing about plants that I know is that the water inside of a plant's leaf evaporates into the air.

Alex
said

I have learned that agronomy affects me because plants produce oxygen and we breathe oxygen and plants can produce things like fruits and veggies. Also plants from the Legume family produce a healthy nitrogen for plants to use.

Dylan
said

Hi Katie, we have learned that there is a very long process for food to get to our tables and that the food goes through a lot of machines and being touched by other people. 

Grace
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Alex
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Hi my name is Alex and I love science, drawing, and technology. In my free time I like to play on my Oculus VR headset. My favorite food is tacos especially from Fiesta Charra.

Grace
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Dylan
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Alex
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Dylan
said

I my name is Dylan and I’m in mrs grays class. I love Red Robin and Panda Express and love to play video games with my friends.I am excited to work with you on this project.

 

Grace
said

Hi, my name is Grace! In my free time I enjoy crocheting, drawing, and spending time with family and friends. I play soccer and ballet. I look forward to working with you as we learn about seeds!

PlantingScience Staff
said

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NSF_Logo.jpg This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #2010556 and #1502892. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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