Info
| Explore | We know that seeds don't need light since they're in soil. They grow under the ground in the right conditions of warmth and moisture. When they sprout that's when they use photosynthesis, photosynthesis is how they get their energy. But, some plants prefer shade over light. In elementary school,... |
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| Research Question | How does the water temperature affect the speed of seeds germinating/growing? |
| Predictions | warm water will make the seed germinate the fastest |
| Experimental Design | First, we get the seeds and put five of each in six petri dishes. Then we give each petri dish an equal amount of water, each get either cold, room temperature, or warm water every day. Next, we wait for the seeds to germinate. We will take note on how long it takes for them to sprout and what... |
| Conclusion | The temperature of the water a plant is given does not affect how fast it germinates. As the graph and the data table show, all three experiments had a average seed growth around 3.5 inches. When compared to each other, the growth of the three seed groups are relatively the same. I suspect that... |
| About this Project |
This team had great communication with their mentors and kept a good attitude even when confused by the findings -- they definitely made me chuckle a few times. -- Jessica Szetela, Scientist Liaison |
Updates
thank you for being here with us, helping us along. Goodbye
Thank you, Katie, for taking your time to work with us. We really appreciate your feedback and how you cooperated, have a good one.
This is our last time on the site we would like to thank you for all your guidance, we are lucky to have worked with you!
Evaluation:
Two sources of error that could’ve occurred are unequal amounts of water, not giving the seeds the correct water temperature, dropping the petri dish(es).
What surprised me is that all three groups were close in their growing averages, I expected them to be way more different.
If we were to go back and redo the experiment we would try not to rush it too much, it would improve the investigation by getting more efficient results.
A related question i’d be willing to investigate is how room temperature affects plant growth.
Hi team,
Great to hear that you thought back about your project and what you might do differently in the future. Dropping the Petri dishes is probably not a problem (oops!), but it could have changed the volume of water if any spilled. But maybe it could influence their growth! You've got me considering if I need to be more careful with the bean seeds I'm sprouting to put in my garden beds.
I totally understand the feeling rushed! Part of science is making sure you have time for unexpected "complications", like not being able to observe your plants when it's the weekend. Now that you know how easy it is to get seeds to start growing, you can even set up an investigation at home. A dish to put the seeds, damp paper towels, and a few seeds are all you need to do some science!
Thanks for sharing your project with me and I hope you had fun and learned a lot.
Katie
That is a beautiful graph! It makes it very clear that you observed your seeds over several days, the color coding by temperature is helpful, and it shows that there really weren't any differences between the temperatures.
Hello hello Super Seeds! (I wish I could put a plant super hero gif in here -- just imagine how glorious it would be)
Great work on this project -- looking at water temperature is a really cool idea! I work in the Arctic so this is something I think about often (like how do seeds or plants grow differently in soils in different environments and conditions all over the world!).
I agree that keeping the amount of water the same across your treatments would be helpful if you were to do this project again. There are things known as "confounding variables" which are things that you aren't controlling for that could impact your results. Good job catching that water amount might be one of these -- its very cool that they all seemed to grow similarly though!
Science tends to be soooo fast paced, and so I definitely understand what you mean by feeling rushed! There is a weird line to walk between keeping on track with doing fast research and taking the time to make sure you are doing everything correctly and efficiently -- but this is a learnable skill so don't worry! You guys did a fantastic job with this project and will only continue to get better as you do more experiments :)
We're always here for questions and advice!
All the best,
Jes
we are the only group that did temp of water but all the seeds grew similar. we are not to shocked that the grew similar. our thoughts where that they would grow identical. they grew identical because the temp wont effect the nutrients in the water or how much sun they get.
Hi team,
I'd like to hear your thoughts on way the temperature of the water did not affect the speed of germination for your seeds.
Did any other teams try temperature & see similar results (or different results!)?
Hi Super Seeds,
I know you're discussing your conclusions and was still wondering if you had a chance to chat about why you think the temperature of the water did not change the speed of germination for your seeds?
Thought I'd check in and see if you need any help with your conclusions or making your graphs!
oops sorry
Please remember to update the conclusion in the "Project Info" so you have completed all of the steps!
Thanks Katie - We will be doing work on data analysis before we post our conclusions.
Upon conclusion of the data we have laboriously gathered our team has concluded the temperature of the water does not affect the rate of germination. As you can see in the pictures we have taken all the plants are approximately the same size.
Hurray for great data! I agree with your conclusion that your plants all look the same size, regardless of the temperature of the water.
I appreciate the pictures since it also shows things like the color of the leaves (also looks the same in all temperatures).
The best thing about science is you always learn something - even if it was unexpected!
Today we carried on our normal routine of measuring and watering, but today we also measured the temp of the water.
Cold water: 33.1 F
Room-temp water: 75 F
Warm water: 110 F
As you can see our seeds have shown incredible growth over the previous weekend. All but one seed have started their path to germination.
It's normal to have less than 100% germination. Good thing you had more than one seed on each Petri plate!
That's great! Do you see any differences with the seeds (now plants!) that you put on the different Petri plates? Look closely at the stem size, stem color, leaf size, length of roots, etc.
Hi there Team Super Seeds! Any updates on your seeds? They will probably grow a LOT over the weekend!
Very exciting! Thanks for posting a picture of your seeds. Watch them closely since they will probably start to germinate in a day or so!
Here are my ideas.
Seeds usually go through a cold, dormant season before the spring, when they sprout, called stratification. However, mustard seeds do not experience that. In order to keep the water at the temperature we want, we also need to change the temperature of the plant, and because we do not have the appropriate equipment, we cannot only do one of the factors(temp. of plant/temp.water) Additionally, mustard seeds grow best in cool temperatures, from about 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit(13-18 celsius). We have a refrigerator(≈40 Fahrenheit), room temp. (≈70) and a ?????(≈????) I would think that the room temp. would be the best, but mustard seeds have been proven to survive temperatures lower than 40' F, and prior groups have found that cold water germinates some seeds faster than other temperatures of water. Finally, it takes about 9 days for mustard seeds to germinate.
So, in conclusion, I personally have come to no conclusion.
Thanks for the update!
Your team needs to come to an agreement about which temperature will cause faster germination - warm water or cold water.
It's OK if your prediction is not supported! Finding unexpected results is part of what makes science fun.
PS Stratification is the term for chilling seeds for a few days to make them germinate at the same time. Mustard seeds can be stratified.
The term for seeds needing to experience winter (weeks or months of cold) to grow is called vernalization :o). Mustard seeds do not need to experience winter to grow.
Thanks for sharing the pictures!
One question for your team - in the "Predictions" you said "Cold water will make the seed germinate the fastest"
But
On the worksheet, you wrote that the warm water seeds will germinate faster.
Could you clarify? It's OK if you've changed your prediction, I just want to know if you all agree which temperature of water (warm or cold) you predict will make the seeds germinate faster.
1. If you make a hole in a bottle, stick a cotton swap through it, and then tape a stick to the side of the bottle, you can stick the bottle, once filled, into the soil of the plant and it will continuously drip the contents of the bottle into the soil. But this only works for soil, which we will not be using :/
2. Does changing the temperature of the water also mean we must change the temperature of the plant?
1. A bottle with soil would allow for a constant drip of water. Maybe try it in the future!
2. With the equipment & supplies you have available, the only way to change the temperature of the water is to change the temperature of the plant too.
Hi Katie, on Monday we had a zoom meeting with three scientists and we presented what we were going to investigate. We planned on using about six petri dishes with five seeds in each, then using cold water for the first two, room-temperature water for this next two, and then warm water for the last two. What we still need to figure out is how to keep the water at it's temperature throughout the investigation. I was thinking maybe leaving the cold water in the refrigerator and the warm water under a heating lamp of some sort, how does that sound?
Today we decided to start on some catching up since we're all in different spots. I'm mainly getting check-lists filled out, TJ is filling out his journal, and Kona is wrapping up his explore section.
Thanks for the update! Glad you got a chance to chat with some scientists over Zoom!
You are going to have to change your experiment. A heat lamp adds light and heat. The refrigerator is dark inside. It's not a fair comparison unless the only difference is the temperature of the water, and each of your dishes of seeds would be getting different temperature AND different amounts of light.
Please talk with Evelyn Gray.
Ohio Waqar Hussain! Hajimemashite. Kona desu.
Kona, TJ, and Kheila from Team formerly known as "adaadadaddadadaddaadaadaddddadaaadadaaaadadadaaddadadadadadaaaadadadaadadadadadadadadadadaddada!" and now Team "Super Seeds スーパーシード"
What you'd need would be a constant drip of cold water (and a way to also constantly drain off excess water). And then another set of seeds with a constant drip of warm water (also with a drain).
Maybe if you had two sinks and let the faucets drip? But you'd need permission for sure! Other teams might need access to the sinks too.
So, if Evelyn Gray says yes it's possible for you to use two sinks (and keep the water dripping for a few days), then this is possible to test.
But I'd encourage you to come up with a few additional ideas as well. It's not always possible to set up every experiment we want the first time (and that's OK!).
We decided to follow the question 'How does the temperature of water affect the germination rate of the seeds?' Is that a good idea?
You'll have to have a way to keep the seeds + water at the temperatures you are using. Cold water will very quickly warm up to room temperature. Warm water will very quickly cool down to room temperature.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm saying you need to make sure you have a way to maintain the temperature. Water changes temperature in minutes, seeds take hours to days to sprout.
Talk with your teacher to see if this is possible.
One thing that I know we can't do:
how does a plant grow when there's no gravity?
It would be hard unless you have access to a rocket!
But you can look at how gravity influences how plants grow.
Seeds can be put "upside-down" and they will still grow. Might be fun to see!
There are multiple factors that germinate seeds. the liquid, light, warmth, soil, and humidity.
What should we use for each? or should we only do one?
Most of the time, folks pick just one factor so they can set up a "fair test". If you used different liquids, different light, different soil, and different humidity, and saw one group of seeds germinated faster than another group of seeds; then you wouldn't know which of those factors was making your seeds germinate faster (just one of the factors? all of them? two of them? etc.).
I know it's a challenge to pick just one for your team! They are all interesting. But you can compare your data with your classmates to learn even more.