| 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 water to help seeds grow. We also know that seeds need specific conditions to grow in. We are going to find out if they can even germinate with different liquids. We look forward to this investigation to find out more about seeds and what conditions they can germinate in. |
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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 the seeds, you will record growth and other observations about the seeds. You will repeat this the following week. |
| 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 average. Reasoning: This supported my prediction and prior knowledge because I thought that the water and sparkling water would grow around the same amount. This happened because the sugars in sodas and juices feed harmful microorganisms in the soil that compete (and often outcompete) seeds. These microorganisms also make the seeds more prone to mold. The additional minerals can be good for seed germination and growth for short periods of time, which explains why the seeds watered with Club Soda (a type of sparkling water) did around as well as the plants watered with water. I believe that this was a somewhat fair test since most of our data seemed plausible, however some of our data seems off in the last few days recorded. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Teacher Name | Evelyn Gray |
| School Name | DeWitt Middle School |
| Session | Spring 2023 |
| 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, Scientist Mentor |