Info
| Explore | All seeds contain a diploid embryo and a food supply. The diploid embryo contains the root, the stem, and the leaf, which are called cotyledons. Most of the seeds have a shell that is called a seed coat. Dicots (plants with two cotyledons) store their energy reserves in their leaves. Monocots... |
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| Research Question | How does the type of liquid affect the germination of the seed? |
| Predictions | If we change the liquid, then water will do the best while the alcohol in the hand sanitizer will kill the seed. This is because the water is the thing that a plant needs to grow and the alcohol in the hand sanitizer will kill the seed. |
| Experimental Design | Control: Amount of light, water, and temperature of water and area Independent Variable: Type of liquid Dependent Variable: Growth of plant at the end of a week. 1. Collect materials. Materials: 50 buckwheat seeds, 5 paper towels, 5 plastic bags, beef broth, carbonated water, water, hand... |
| Conclusion | Claim: Watering seeds with Carbonated water makes them grow better. Evidence: Carbonated water had a average measurement of 6.9 centimeters. Hand Sanitizer grew the worst, heck it didn’t even grow at all. Apple juice was second worse with beef broth being second best. Water didn’t have a... |
| About this Project |
They're quite structured in collecting and presenting data and can also be creative by showing their data under different perspectives. |
Updates
Evaluation:
Dylan couldn’t measure the seed because they were all tangled. This soiled the experiment because without a proper measurement from Water we can't really solve the question. In the future we can spread the seeds farther from each other so there is little chance of them getting tangled,
Tim, apple juice, saw many types of mold in his bag of seeds. This might have been because the sugar in the juice had fermented, or because he forgot to wash his hands before handling the seeds. This killed or stunted the growth of a few of the seeds and left our findings maybe a bit wrong. To prevent this in the future we can keep human contact with seeds to a minimum, to reduce the amount of bacteria that gets on the seed.
I didn’t water my seeds every day, for I saw that my bag was still wet even after a few days, maybe my measurements of 5 ml were accidentally 5 cl, but to make sure this doesn’t happen next time, we can double check our measurements and measurement devices respectively.
I am somewhat confident in this investigation because we conducted ten trials and used scientific principles and concepts, but the attempts of error we considered were not the same as the errors we faced. We thought we had accounted for every problem, but we didn’t consider the idea of mold getting into the seed containment bags. If we could have prevented this, our results might have been more correct. We used ten seeds, just incase a few died. At least 1 died in each, this was expected but we didn’t know that mold could spread between seeds so fast. We tried to clean out the mold and Tim changed the apple juice paper towels daily, but the mold still spread and plant lives were still lost.
Dear Bucky,
It is great that you managed to identify the drawbacks faced during the experiment!
Of course, tangled roots make length measurement more difficult. These days scientists do these analyses through softwares using photos or scans of seedlings each day after sowing seeds. These programs can measure things in every direction, so it's easy even if the root does a loop!
Regarding mold, that's a pretty normal issue plant biologists have to deal with every day...but obviously, you could not see it coming because it's your first experience with this type of experiment.
So great work guys, the most important is that you learn from these drawbacks and are able to apply what you've learned in future experiments :)
I hope you've had a fun session and best luck with the rest of your school year!
Marina (liaison)
Hm, I would say to think about how you could have measured the control roots, or another way of measuring the roots where it would not matter if they were tangled. In some of the graphs "length of the seed" is a little confusing - is it just length of the roots? Maybe mass (weight) of the seedling could have been measured, that way the tangling would not have mattered? Really interesting results here, great work everyone!
Thanks!
These graphs look exciting! Do you have total growth for the controls as well? I cannot read the full conclusions...
We don't have the total growth for the control because we couldn't measure the length of the roots because they were tangled. We also don't have any data for the control before the final day.
Hi Nora! I believe you can read the full conclusion if you click on the "info" tab! I hope this helps!
Farewell and Best Wishes
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. You have until Tuesday, April 25, 2021, to post ALL of your updates, comments, and goodbyes. 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
thank you for helping us
Do you have any feedback for the experiment? what should we have done differently?
Thank you for helping with everything!
Anyway, thanks for all your help!
Can you reveiw our conclusion Mentor?
Thank you for your help and involvement in this project!
Exciting results coming in! Looks like none of the seeds in the hand sanitizer treatment have germinated yet - is this true?
Yes it is.
my seeds had no mold! but one of them did not sprout
Interesting that there were so many types of mold - where did you get these seeds?
We got these seeds from our teacher. For me, one possible source of error could be that the bag wasn't completely closed the entire time.
My seeds were getting very close to shedding their seed covers and exposing the first leaves to the sunlight. They roots never got very brown, and all of the plants looked healthy except for the moldy one.
In the end, I had at least 4 different varieties of mold in my bag. I had some fluffy white, grayish-green, bright yellow, and a red/orange. Earlier I also had a grayish-white. I think that I had waaaay too much fun describing my mold.
Hi,
So I yesterday I saw that one of my seeds was molded over at the opening where the root was trying to come out, and I'm a little confused because the two seeds on either side of the molding one are growing. The bag's only been opened to water, so there's little chance of bacteria getting in, and the water came from the tap. Do you think it was just a bad seed?
The seed could have had some spores on it, that's okay though! That's why it's good to have multiple seeds per treatmetn!
Oh the pictures look great! Are you recording data? Where do you think the mold came from - the liquid, the seed, or some other source?
I think that they came from the liquid and/or some other source. We are recording our data.
My paper towel became moldy probably because my paper towel was soaked.
The pictures look great - so exciting! How often will you re-apply the different liquids?
Once a day, during class.
That sounds great - what other different types of liquids will you test?
We are using beef broth, apple juice, carbonated water, and hand sanitizer. With the beef broth, I think that that it might help it grow better because it would have some nutrients that might help its growth. With apple juice, it has sugar that also might help its growth. carbonated water has carbon which might help the plant photosynthesize. Hand sanitizer, I'm not sure. I think we are just going to see what happens to the seeds that get watered with it.
The ladder... but we also want to see what kills or not.
Hi all, I'm reading through your predictions now. Are you trying to understand if a certain liquid will kill the plant, or if it will lead to slower germination or growth?
Yes, I think so, but we are trying to see if any of the liquids make the seed grow better than water.
How does what the water contains affect the growth of the plant?
If water contains harmful chemicals or pollutants, that could negatively affect the plant. The seed absorbs water and if anything bad is in the water, that bad stuff could get into the seedling. If there are fertilizers or other helpful nutrients that could help. What types of things were you thinking about in terms of what to add to the water?
Hi Colin, I went to South Africa for a total of four times for 2-6 weeks at a time. I was still living in the US but would go there over the summer to collect samples and data!
Hi I'm Nora, I'll be your mentor! I research plant hybridization and have worked in South Africa before. Right now I'm researching sunflowers. I have an orange tabby cat named Beans, he likes to snuggle, and I enjoy running and ultimate frisbee - I used to play soccer. I'm excited to work with all of you!
How long have you worked in South Africa for?
Beans is a great name for a cat! Expecialy a orange one! Nice to meet you!
Hello, my name is Dylan. I enjoy drawing on paper and sometimes editing them digitally, and I like reading. I watch anime a lot, and play video games with my friends. I like both cats and dogs; they are equally amazing. I play lacrosse and think it's really fun. I'm looking forward to this investigation!
Hi my name is Colin. I enjoy working in groups. Some of my hobbies are kayaking, hunting, fishing, and baseball. I enjoy cooking and playing VR.
hi I am Landon I like sports and I am looking forward to learning about plant
Hi, my name is Tim, and I like to read, (any book that I can get my hands on) play games, (usually board games or card games, video games if I can), and other miscellaneous things.
Hello my name is Bucky, I'm so exited to be apart of this program! I like swimming and playing video games. I also like to make and read memes. Thank you for being me and my group's mentor!
Welcome to your PlantingScience project page!
Welcome to this community of plant researchers. As your team plans and conducts your own research project, you will be mentored by a scientist. The mentor's role is to encourage and guide you through the process of scientific discovery. The more you share your ideas and research information online, the more your mentor can help. You can also find out more about your mentor. What is their research about? Why did they go into science? What do they like to do when they are not working?
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Welcome to a new session of PlantingScience! I am one of two liaisons for this group, Sara Johnson. The other liason for our group is Marina Borges. Please get in touch if you need anything! Our role is to facilitate the conversation between this group of students and mentors when it is needed. Other than being your liaison, I am a graduate student at the University of Illinois: Urbana Champaign and I work in a rare plant conservation lab. My thesis work involves around coordinated reassessments for species on the endangered species list. We conduct mapping and modeling, germination trials and reproductive assessments, and lots of field work to understand the habitats where our plants persist. Excited to work with all of you!
Best,
Sara Johnson