| Explore | We know that Plants need a specific enviornment to grow, and that some plants have different needs than others, such as desert plants not requiring as much water. We also know that plants can change from different states, and that some blossoms can develope into fruit |
|---|---|
| Research Question | How does soaking the papertowel that a buckwheat seed is placed on with different types of water affect the speed of germination on the plant? |
| Predictions | If we put a half a tsp of plant food in water and give it to a seed each day, then that seed will grow more than everything else. |
| Experimental Design | 1. Assemble materials on top of a table, lining everything up as needed. 2. Grab one petri dish, placing your left hand on the bottom half and your right hand on the top. Pull the top dish up, and the bottom dish down. The two halves should separate from each other, creating two half dishes. 3. Set the two halves off to the side 4. Grab the paper towels and double them up, placing them in the bottom of the bottom dish so that no towel ends stick out of the dish. 5. Using the dropper, squeeze the bulb end with the pointier end in the beaker, sucking up water. 6. Hold the dropper over the petri dish, and squeeze the end again to distribute the water, making it even. 7. Place the 6 buckwheat in the dish, spacing them equally. 8. Repeat steps 5-6 until 5 milliliters of water are in the towel. 9. Place the top half of the dish back on top, popping it back into place, so the seeds are secure inside. 10. Repeat steps 2 through 9 with the rest of the water, each time adding first baking soda, then salt, food coloring third, and Plant food fourth to the water. Be sure to mix all of these materials into the water separately, with different . 11. Repeat steps steps 5, and 6 daily, for a week mixing the different materials into the water each time, opening the dishes before completing the steps, and closing them after. 12. Repeat step 11 for all of the dishes. 13. If roots, leaves, or other plant growth is shown, record it in the data table, including the length of whatever is shown in the corresponding table slot. |
| Conclusion | Claim: When adding different substances to a buckwheat seed, the seeds that were fed water germinated the fastest. Evidence: When 5 different substances were added to a buckwheat seed, the water with salt, and the water with baking soda didn’t show any growth, and no roots sprouted. The plant food water began to sprout a root, but measured in at less than half of a centimeter. The Dyed water seeds grew the second best, reaching a final length of 8 ½ cm, and covering most of the petri dish. And finally, water grew the most, measuring in at a whopping 16cm, and the roots began to turn a deeper color, indicating that the seeds were ready to go into soil. Regular water seeds won by a wide margin, and easily took the title of the most growth in a week. Reasoning: It seemed peculiar to us that the plant food water didn’t grow more than it did. It was also puzzling that the seeds with salt water and baking soda didn’t show any kind of growth at all. We did some research and came to this solution: Osmosis is the process of plants absorbing water through a semipermeable membrane. This is how roots and cells take in water to nourish the plant, and also how humans take water into their cells. It’s because of this that we cannot drink salt water, as it would dry out the cells. we believe that this is why the salt water plants showed no growth. According to Dr. Axe.com, baking soda has “Abrasive qualities”, which is why it is good to occasionally brush your teeth with baking soda, but it probably wasn’t the best source of nutrition for the seeds. Additionally, the plant food water didn’t jump start the process for the seeds because it isn’t designed to work just for the soil. It is designed to help plants in malnourished soil, which is why it is commonly used in farms that have been around for a while, with the nutrients gone from the soil. The dye didn’t have much of an affect on the water since it comes from a bug called the cochineal, so it still grew to a pleasing height of 8 ½ cm. And there wasn’t anything to restrict the water from being absorbed into the seed. Overall, I wasn’t very surprised at the outcome, though I did think that the plant wood water would grow more than it did. I had also thought that maybe the salt water would have grown more because of the vibrancy of ocean wildlife, it might enhance the seed’s life, but it was not the case. Our data could have been a little off, because someone different used the dropper to distribute the mixture each day, and we each had a different idea of how much the plant needed, so we definitely could have been more accurate, but overall, our experiment went well. |