| Explore | What we know about plants from our experiences outside of school, is that plants need water, sunlight, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and good soil. What we have learned in class is that plants are made up of several different organelles that have different purposes, such as carrying out photosynthesis and cellular respiration. One question about plants that interests us is: does the intensity of the light affect how long it takes for a plant to germinate. |
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| Research Question | The question we want to test/study is: How does the amount of light affect how many alfalfa seeds will germinate every day? We came up with this question by thinking about what the plants need to live. We knew that plants needed light, so we wondered if more or less light, would make them grow faster? This question fits what we know about the topic because we already know what a plant needs to live and grow, and are wondering if there is a way to make the germination process faster. |
| Predictions | If the seeds are receiving all of the light, then more seeds will germinate each day. We think this because normally plants need all of the light they can get to grow at a faster pace. |
| Experimental Design | 1. Put the alfalfa seeds (10) in the wet paper towel and fold the towel, place it into a plastic bag 2. Put bags into each cardboard box, one with 4 holes, the other with 8 holes (1 bag per box)(2 boxes) 3. The other bag will go under a lamp with no box 4. The lamps will go over the 2 boxes and 3 bags, lamps will be on during the school day 5. Observe every day, and track how many alfalfa seeds germinate each day 6. Repeat step 5 for 6 days |
| Conclusion | In conclusion, from our experiment, we can claim that as the amount of light increases, the rate of germination decreases. A possible explanation for our results is that light is not a necessity for germination. Seeds are usually planted underground where they get little to no light. So when you put seeds under light for six days, they can become fried and die. In the data, it shows that the seeds with no box have only two seeds germinated. And five seeds germinated with the seeds under a box. That leaves 3 more seeds that germinated under a box than with no box. This all supports our claim because the experiment is showing that because we put seeds under constant light for 6 days, the germination slowed down, or decreased. And because we put seeds in boxes with less light, the germination increased while the amount of light decreased. To expand this experiment in the future, we could have some seeds put underground and some seeds out in the sun to see the rate of how fast the seeds have sprouted from a different perspective. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Teacher Name | Evelyn Gray |
| School Name | DeWitt Middle School |
| Session | Spring 2021 |