Info
Explore | Germination means to start growing, it has 3 needs water, correct temperature, and a good location. Seeds supply the food to the plant until its big enough to make its own food. Plants need external temperature, moisture, and light for it to grow. Different seeds react to different ways to a... |
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Research Question | How does the amount of water affect the rate of germination? |
Predictions | If you have the 3 milliliters of water then more seeds will grow. Too much water can rot the seed before it gets to grow, and if you don´t have enough water that means the plant doesn't have enough moisture to start the germination process. |
Experimental Design | step 1: Set up 3 petri dishes for each water amount, with 20 seeds in each petri dish. step 2: Water all petri dishes, with the different amounts of water, once at the beginning. step 3: Wait a few days to watch the growth. |
Conclusion | The more amount of water you add the more of the radish seeds germinate. |
About this Project |
Good communication between mentor and students. Students actively used mentor and mentor's answers as a resource to plan/correct their study. Excellent communication with mentor, proactivity. Mentor gave some suggestions and encouraged team to work further or to wait for results. |
Updates
As this research project is now in the final stages of wrapping-up, we wish to thank everyone who participated in this inquiry; the students, mentors, teachers and others behind the scenes. We appreciate all of your efforts and contributions to this online learning community.
Scientific exploration is a process of discovery that can be fun! There are many unanswered questions about plants just waiting for new scientists to consider, investigate, and share.
After the end of the session, we will be updating the platform and archiving groups and projects, after which time new updates/posts will not be able to be added to projects or groups. Please come back and visit the PlantingScience Project Gallery anytime to view this project in the future. You can search the Gallery by keyword, team name, topic, or school name.
Good bye for now.
Warm regards,
The PlantingScience team
Thanks for sharing the results, Peypeyjames Group. I hope you had good time with this project.
Best wishes, Dr. Dan
It’s great to see that teams from your school are wrapping up and posting conclusions. Enjoy the final stages of your project, and feel free to post any final comments or questions you have for your mentors.
I would surely like to know what the results were.
Thanks, Dr. Dan
Dear Peypeyjames Team:
Have you "scored" your petri dishes yet? Do you have germination data for them? I have to rely on you to tell me what's happening, and I'm very curious to know.
Thanks, Dr. Dan
OK, Alanna, how about telling us which ones? What moisture level?
Thanks, Dr. Dan
Dear Peypeyjames Team:
The thought occurred to me that I should ask if you know about root hairs. They make the tips of young roots look fuzzy in much the same way mold would. I've attached a link to a picture of a very young radish seedling. If your seedlings look like this they are perfectly healthy.
https://faculty.uca.edu/johnc/RootHairsRadish.jpg
Cheers, Dr. Dan
Dear Peypeyjames Team:
I think you should not add water. If you handled all of them the same (for example, if you opened all of them to inspect them), and you have enough moisture for mold to form in some of the dishes, I think your experiment is valid. On Monday the experiment shall have run for 1 wk, which is how long I was going to recommend you run it for radish seeds.
I was thinking about the mold, and I remembered your prediction that if there was too much water the seeds would rot. Mold is one of the main pathogens that rots seeds. So maybe one of your predictions has been validated.
On Monday we can discuss your other results.
Dr. Dan
Well, Team, anywhere that mold grows has plenty of moisture, and mold is an enemy of seeds. I think you should consider its presence as one of the results, albeit an unexpected one. I also suspect that all the dishes do not have it. Is there a correlation between mold on the seeds and moisture level?
I will be surprised if you don't see some germination today. Hang in there and keep checking.
Best wishes, Dr. Dan
A lot of our seeds have molded. Also we didn't realize we weren't supposed to open the dishes to observe. None of our seeds have yet germinated. We have noticed a lot of cracks on a lot of the seeds though. We put the seeds in 4 days ago. The glass petri dishes aren't very tight fitting, So that might be a factor.
Dear Peypeyjames Team:
Be patient. It's probably OK, so don't add water yet; I'm investigating your question. I know you posted pictures yesterday, but how many days has it actually been since you put the seeds in the petri dishes? Check carefully by looking through the closed lids with a hand lens or dissection microscope. Do any of the seeds show signs of growth, like swelling and splitting of the seedcoat or emergence of an organ? I’ll post an answer for you a little later this afternoon.
Best wishes, Dr. Dan
Dear Eric:
I am puzzled. I did a similar experiment in my college class last semester. The water the students added at the beginning lasted at least a week. If you did not open the dishes, how can you tell the paper is drying out? This is an important question, so please answer quickly. How can you tell it's drying out? We used plastic petri dishes; you used glass. The lids may fit tighter on plastic dishes. I will go check on this right now. Have any seeds germinated yet?
Dr. Dan
Dear Dr. Gladish We were wondering if we needed to water the paper towel because they are starting to get dry? Also since the weekend is coming up we're afraid they're going to be too dry, so can we add another treatment?
Beautiful, Alanna! You guys did a great job on the set-up. Remember, don't open any of the dishes until the experiment is over, so the moisture levels don't change.
If possible you should inspect them every day - at the same time if possible - and write down what you see. It would be a good idea for each moisture level to add a number or letter (ABC) to your labels so you can keep data for each dish separately over time. You can always combine data later if you want to, but if you don't record data separately, you cannot separate it later no matter how much you might want to.
The amount of water may affect more than just the germination rate (percent of seeds that sprout). It may also affect how long it takes to germinate, so the percent that have germinated may change over time. I think that's interesting too. In light of this possible time effect, and the fact that you've set up a nice range of moisture levels, consider updating your predictions so they are more specific. These predictions are your hypotheses. Scientists often revise a hypothesis as they think about an experiment.
Questions: What plant parts (organs) are in a seed? What part of the seedlings do you think will grow first? Or, do you think all parts will begin at the same time? If only one part grows first, why would that be? Since they are small you can use a hand lens to inspect them. If you have a dissecting microscope, you can take pictures with a phone camera right through one of the ocular lenses. If you decide to move the dishes to do something like that, try not to bump or tip them.
Question: If, after 3 days, all but three seeds in one of the dishes have germinated, what percent germination would that be?
This is great! I love experimenting.
Dr. Dan