| Explore | In order for a seed to grow, they need photosynthesis and cellular respiration. These things require water, sunlight energy, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and glucose. If a plant doesn't have one of these it will not thrive and it might even die over time. A seed can become dormant and slow down its cellular respiration so it stops and they do that until the conditions are right for them to grow. A seed's dormancy state can last for around 100 years depending on the type of seed. When the conditions for the seed to start growing are right, and they have everything they need to start growing, they will start the process of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Depending on the type of seed germination will take anywhere from 3 - 28 days on average; however, this number can vary due to environmental conditions and if they have everything they need to grow. Pearl Millet grows best in semiarid tropics such as Asia and Africa, but especially in India, Mali, Nigeria, Niger. It thrives in a much warmer climate. It’s a summer grain and does not do well in cold temperatures. It can withstand temperatures as high as 107 degrees Fahrenheit. They grow in harsh environments with marginal soils and low rainfall. Pearl Millet grows better in the heat than grains such as rice, wheat, maize, etc. Overall pearl Millet has proven to be the best seed for our specific experiment. Sources: Chapatis of pearl millet for a changing climate - Crop Wild ... https://www.cwrdiversity.org › pearl-millet Millet - Northern Grain Growers Association https://northerngraingrowers.org |
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| Research Question | How does the temperature of the water affect the rate of a pearl millet seed's germination? We came up with this question by thinking of something unique that others wouldn't think of. |
| Predictions | The warm water will produce the fastest rate of a seed's germination. This is because warm water is the kind of temperature that pearl millet typically thrives in. The cold water will be too cold for the plant to carry out photosynthesis and cellular respiration and the hot water would be too hot to carry out those processes too. |
| Experimental Design | Step One: Get six Petri dishes Step Two: Put one 3”x3” square paper towel in each dish Step Three: Put two pearl millet seeds in each petri dish Step Four: Get three cups out fill one with hot, one with, warm, and one with cold water Step Five: Take the thermometer and check the temperature of all three cups of water Step Six: To make sure that the hot water is 105 F, the warm water is 85 F, and the cold water is 48 F Step Seven: Petri dish 1 and 2 is hot, 3 and 4 is warm, 5 and 6 is cold Step Eight: Drop 5ml of hot water into petri dish 1 and 2 Step Nine: Drop 5ml of warm water into petri dish 3 and 4 Step Ten: Drop 5ml of cold water into petri dish 5 and 6 Step Eleven: Put the top in the Petri dishes Step Twelve: Let them sit for a week and every other day record and measure how long the plant grew. We are going to change the independent variables/ treatments by changing the degrees of the water. We will maintain these temperatures by putting the hot Petri dishes by a heater and the cold Petri dish in the fridge; the warm water dish will be left out in the classroom. |
| Conclusion | Claim: The warm seeds grew the most because their temperature was the best fit for the seeds. Evidence: The Pearl Millet seed's usual temperature of climate/soil is around 75-90F degrees, which is the best fit for the seeds to grow and germinate. Since the warm water seeds were in 80-85F degrees, the seeds grew the most out of the two other temperatures. The warm seeds were also getting a large amount of light compared to the others, which affected the growth. Reasoning: These results happened because when the seeds were not used to germinate in a cold temperature environment (48F) or a hot temperature environment (105F). This causes the seeds to use stored food faster than they can make it and this causes photosynthesis to slow down. Another reason the hot water seeds may have died was that when we did not add enough hot water to the paper towel the seeds had no water to use for the process of photosynthesis, which results in the slow of cellular respiration and the making of ATP energy. This experiment was a fair investigation because all of our data was properly measured and we gave all of the seeds the same amount of water; the only thing that was iffy was the first couple of days the hot water paper towel was dry so we had to add more water. This experiment supported my prior knowledge because I predicted that the warm water was going to produce the best and fastest germination. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Teacher Name | Kristen Stiem |
| School Name | DeWitt Middle School |
| Session | Spring 2022 |