Info
| Explore | We know that plants require water in order to undergo photosynthesis and grow, so we wanted to test out what different liquids would do to a germinating seed. We are interested in this because everyone always uses water to water their plants and we want to know if there is a better alternative to... |
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| Research Question | What liquid is most efficient for seed germination? |
| Predictions | Two people said: I think the seeds will grow best in water because they are used to growing in water. One person said: I think apple juice will do better because it has more nutrients than water. |
| Experimental Design | You will have 5 radish seeds in four petri dishes (20 in total). Every Monday and Wednesday, you will give the seeds one teaspoon of the liquid used in their dishes. One will be water, one will be sparkling water, one will be apple juice, and one will be Coca-Cola. Every day that you don't water... |
| Conclusion | Claim: Water and sparkling water are best for seed growth and germination, while apple juice and Pepsi are very bad for seed growth. Evidence: Pepsi and Apple Juice both grew zero seeds (meaning that they grew 0cm), while the root of the water and sparkling water got to be 3.07cm on... |
| About this Project |
I would nominate the Wiggly Worms project for the Star project as they had a very good plan to discover how different liquids can perform in seed germination, were super active in communicating their findings, and had some interesting results at the end. --Kishwar Ali,... |
Updates
Hello Dr. Ali and Shan! These next messages will be our last to you. We wanted to say thank you for your support and help throughout the experiment!
This is Caylie from the Wiggly Worms, signing off for now.
Have a wonderful day. :D
Goodbye!
Dear Caylie and all wiggly worms,
It was pleasure meeting you folks and interacting with you. You are such a great team.
I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.
Dr. Ali
Dr Ali and Shan, thank you for your help throught this investigation! This will be my last message and to you guys. thank you again for everything!
Hello Dr. Ali and Shan! Thank you for your help and support throughout this investigation! We are reporting some parts of our Lab Reports from after the investigation. Here are a few reflective points from one of the Lab Reports:
What surprised you and why?
I was surprised that the apple juice petri dish had no results, but after the secondary knowledge probe, it made sense. At first, I believed that the apple juice would have grown some seeds because of the apple in it. I thought that it would have boosted the growth and made at least some seeds germinate.
What are two sources of error and how could they have affected the experiment and results?
The first source of error is that we moved our seeds to a different location after the first day. For the first day, we kept them in a cabinet, but after that, we moved them to a grow light. This could have delayed their growth a little. The second source of error is that sometimes it was hard to get all of the liquid into a pipette at once, so we had to eyeball the rest of the liquid at times. Our data may also be slightly messed up because I doubt the plants would have gone down in size from day four to day five. This provides a possibly inaccurate claim or simply incorrect data.
What is something that is still unknown related to your investigation question?
I still wonder which got moldy first - the Pepsi petri dish or the apple juice petri dish. They were left with Mrs. Gray between days two and three of recording observations, so we could not tell which one got moldy first.
What is a related question that you would be interested in investigating?
How does the type of water affect a seed’s germination?
Thank you again for your help!
- Caylie from The Wiggly Worms
We have all finished our lab report! We are good to go, and this is most likely this is one of the last messages we'll send! Thank you again for all of your help throughout this investigation, we have had a great time and have collected lots of data. - The Wiggly Worms!
Woohoo
Hello Dr. Ali! We are recording our final observations of our seeds (pictures will be posted soon) and we have come to make a draft claim, which is as follows:
Seed germination is fastest in water and sparkling water, which are better than apple juice and Pepsi.
Hi Caylie and everyone,
Great job ! It was a good experiment, well done everyone.
For your current results, your claim is correct. For the future reference, as scientists would approach this is to how could mold be avoided using certain modification to this experiment. This could be achieved by treating seeds with some kind of antimicrobial/antifungal agents, using cleaner tools etc.
But, that is another experiment for the future !
Congratulation to you all for conducting a successful experiment. And remember that your learning from this experiment could be shared in the form a report, ask your teacher for further guidance on that.
Dr. Ali
Hello
just a FYI, We have mold in the club soda seeds.
Hello Dr. Ali!
Our remaining seeds are growing strong and I would like to provide a bit more information about them!
In both the Club Soda (sparkling water) and water petri dishes, every seed has germinated. In each of them, four seeds are growing exceptionally well, and one seed in each has germinated but not grown as much. It seems that the other seeds have used those nutrients. One of the seed's stems in the water dish has turned a purple-y, reddish color. Some of the seeds' roots have implanted into the paper towel as well. Also, the different colored leaves you saw in the picture from yesterday were just in shadow because I had to hold my phone above the dishes.
Thank you for your help!
- Caylie
Wow ! Good job !
Before you discard them, you can record the length of the plumule (the new stem) and the radicle (the new root). and also weight each of these plants on a digital scale, I am sure it should be available in your school lab. This data will provide you a very good insight of how plants/seeds have responded to different types of liquids.
Good luck !
Dr. Ali
And Caylie,
I have noticed that some of your seedling look more greener than the other, you can always use qualitative data to describe your results. Ask your teacher about qualitative data.
Cheers,
Ali
There was no root and we alalready threw them out but thank you.
Thank you for your recommendations! We will be sure to move the seeds into different lighting and take to tape off of the top. The Pepsi and apple juice seeds got moldy and we had to get rid of them. We're not sure if we are going to be redoing them or not, but we will keep you updated.
Brilliant, looks good. Keep it in a well lit area. I would suggest keep the labels small and maybe stick them the side of the dishes where they don't make any shadow on the seeds. Light could be a limiting factor for new sprouts at the later stage of the experiment.
Good luck !
Hi Caylie,
Thanks for the updates. When are you going to start the actual experiment? Please share picture of your experimental apparatus and progress.
Your data collection will start from Day 1, when you put the seeds in the petri plate or pot and water them. Keep a journal of daily progress, maybe some kind of excel sheet.
And record, the number of seeds germinated for each liquid treatment you will use, including your control liquid, the water. You can also record the daily growth pattern, i.e. length of these plants and number of leaves appearing on these seedlings. Other data you can record is the visual observation and colour difference in these seedlings. For example some treatments might give you yellowish coloration to the leaves.
On the last day of your experiment, you can weight the fresh weight of these plants and compare how did they respond to the liquid used.
Good luck !
Keep us posted with updated.
Dr. Ali
Hello Dr. Ali and Shan! Thank you for the feedback you gave us. The amount of liquid for us to use we wrote down was a guess after minimal research and we will be determining a better amount of liquid to use by tomorrow. Also, we will be watering the seeds more quickly. We will be using paper towels inside of petri dishes, not soil. We are sharing our more precise predictions soon.
Thank you for your time!
Caylie
Hi Wiggly Worms,
Thank you for the updates. I do have a few questions about your experiment (please see below), but I am sure your mentor (Kishwar Ali) would give you more suggestions about it.
For the amount of liquid (1 teaspoon of the liquid) given to the seeds, you need to check the evaporation rate … Do you put the seeds in soil? Do you need to water your plant more frequently?
I see you talked about water and apple juice in the predictions. So what about Coca-Cola and sparkling water? What is the control treatment here?
Good job!
Regards,
Shan
Hi Wiggly Worms,
Sorry for the delay in responding to you. I am still trying to figure out the Plantingscience discussion panel. I hope I am not too late !
Shan has raised some very good questions. When it comes to a science experiment, you have to consider so many factors.
If you are using soil, make sure that it is the same type of soil for all the pots and I would suggest that you use a precise measure of water, like 20ml etc.
You can be more accurate if you use distilled water instead of tap water as your control. Coca-Cola, Sparkling water and apple juice will be your treatments.
Daily watering (Liquid) treatment and recording daily changes is recommended. Keep a journal for this experiment.
Looking forward to your updates.
Good Luck !
Dr. Ali
Hello Shan! We thought we should give you an update on what we're doing for today. Today we are working on a check list. Yesterday we had a zoom meeting with two other scientists, and we have some updates and some new questions that we're researching.We are now going to research what exactly is in the liquids that we're are giving the plant, and how much of that liquid to give to the plant, so we have accurate results in our investigation.