| Explore | Recently in class, we learned a bit about germination. We learned how seeds often wait for the right time and place to grow. Seeds enter into a hibernation like state called being dormant. Seeds that are not growing are still alive, and they store away energy. Plants also go through a process called photosynthesis which produce food to maintain itself. |
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| Research Question | How does the salinity of the water affect the germination speed of soy beans. |
| Predictions | If there is more salt in the water then the time that germination takes will increase because seeds need minerals to grow and salt is a mineral. Kaeden says that If the salinity of the water increases then the speed of germination will decrease because salt dehydrates so maybe it will dehydrate the plants. |
| Experimental Design | Step 1: Dip one paper towel in the salt water mixture and dip one paper towel in the fresh water. Step 2: trim the paper towels too fit in petri dishes and place in the dishes. Step 3: Place 5 soybean seeds in each petri dishes and cover with lids. Step 4: Wait to see how fast it takes for the first seed to germinate and record the time it took to germinate. |
| Conclusion | Claim: If you increase the salinity of the water the speed of germination will increase. Evidence: This is true because if you look at our final table 4 out of the 5 seeds that where in freshwater germinated while 0 out of 5 germinated in the salt water. Also we had noticed that a few of the salt water seeds where getting dried up. Reasoning: This happened because salt water dehydrates most living organisms. salt dehydrates organisms because salt water has a lot of salt and in order to get the salt out your body has to use more water than comes in from saltwater. This may have also happened because we could have given the plants to much or to little. This might mean that there may be a line that organisms may have a breaking point where organisms can use saltwater. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | Middle School Students (grades 6,7,8) |
| Session | Spring 2019 |