| Explore | Seeds wait to germinate until 3 needs are met: water,correct temperature (warmth), and a good location (such as soil). During its early stages of growth, the seedling relies upon the food supplies stored with in the seed until it is large enough for its own leaves to begin making food though Photosynthesis. |
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| Research Question | How does the amount of fertilizer affect the time it takes to germinate. |
| Predictions | Carter, Fatima, and Kenzie predict, If you put in a medium amount of fertilizer then the seed will germinate faster. Alex predicts, If there is more fertilizer, then the seed will germinate faster. |
| Experimental Design | 1. get 6 petri dishes and put 6 paper towels in each of the petri dishes. 2. Put 6 to 7 soybeans in each petri dish.(13 total for a group of 2). 3. Wet paper towel with water. 4. Fill 3 beakers with 250 ml of water each. 5. Put 0 fertilizer in one, 1/8 tsp of fertilizer in another, and .25 tsp in the last one. 6. Put petri dishes on a counter 7. Put 20 drops of water on the petri dishes. Two petri dishes with no fertilizer, two petri dishes with 1/8 tsp of fertilizer, and two with .25 tsp of fertilizer. |
| Conclusion | The amount of fertilizer does not affect the time soybeans take to germinate. This is true because, on day 7, 0 fertilizer and 1/4 a tsp. of fertilizer had 9 seeds that germinated, and 1/8 tsp. of fertilizer had 7 seeds that germinated. And, after Day 4 the results were exactly the same for the rest of the days. This surprised us because we thought that the fertilizer would provide more nutrients, speeding up the rate of germination. This kind of makes sense though because, we could have used too much fertilize. It said to fertilize the plants 7 to 14 days, while we did it every day for a week. This also was interesting because we thought the ⅛ tsp. of fertilizer would have the most seeds that germinated, but it didn’t. It instead was way less then what we expected it to be. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | Middle School Students (grades 6,7,8) |
| School Name | DeWitt Middle School |
| Session | Spring 2019 |