Planting Science - Projects: Does Size Matter?
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Does Size Matter?

Project by group ghshendersonwosfall2020


Info

Explore Plants feed themselves by using photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is in plants so the plants can get Carbon Dioxide and water. Plants is a biotic factor because they grow, eat, move and reproduce. Plants are an Multicellular organism and is apart of eukaryotes kingdom. How to grow a plant...
Research Question Does the number of the seeds in a container affect the germination time?
Predictions The container with five seeds will germinate before the the containers with 15 seeds.
Experimental Design We are using corn seeds and planting them 2 inches down with about 4 inches of soil. We decided to compare the number of seeds planted in a pot. 2 pots will have 15 seeds one pot (control) will have five.
Conclusion The container with 5 seeds did germinate faster, we believe this was because the container with 15 seeds had less room for the seeds to grow which slowed down the growth. Some future experiments we could do is planting 15 seeds in a larger container and seeing what happens.
About this Project

Although the Fall 2020 session was atypical for all involved, this team did a great job at communicating effectively and thinking through their data to draw some conclusions. They even proposed future research directions based on their results!
-- Daniel Scott, Scientist Liaison

Updates

Get to know your team’s scientist mentor, who will encourage and guide you through the scientific process of discovery. The more you share your ideas and research info, the more your mentor can help. You may also hear from a scientist mentor liaison who will be helping all the teams in your class.
PlantingScience Staff
updated the project info
PlantingScience Staff
has been updated by administrator
PlantingScience Staff
has been updated by administrator
PlantingScience Staff
said

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, November 24, 2020, 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

Dana MacGregor
said

Well done "Does Size Matter?" Project team. I hope you guys enjoyed the sessions. Have fun with the rest of term! 

Evan
said

I enjoyed working with you too, I have updated the conclusion so I think we have everything we need. If we do this again we definitely try putting the 15 seeds in a bigger container. 

Evan
updated the project info
Dana MacGregor
said

Interesting and *testable* predictions! So... next time you could set up a pot that is three times as big with 15 seeds and see if it grows at the same rate as a small pot with five seeds! Or... you could give the pot with 15 seeds three times as much water. Scientists are never satisfied with the data they have, as often, each answer puts out new questions! We're always looking to get more information, so we're always planning the next experiment. You've set up two very good ones here. Although, that all said... looks like you don't have time for these experiments in this round of Planting Science. One of my mentors told me, "Science never stops. Scientists need to stop somewhere" and it looks like this Friday is our endpoint. I hope that you've enjoyed the session and had fun with your 5 vs 15 seeds, I enjoyed working with you. Let me know if I can help you to finish off your project. For instance: Don't forget to put something into the "Conclusion" box above.  

Evan
said

I think that the container with more seeds grew slower because there's less room for them to grow, it also might be because each seed needs water to grow and with so many seeds each seed get's less water.

PlantingScience Staff
said

Looks like you are in the final stages of your projects.

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.

Unfortunately, this session, we have a hard deadline of November 20, 2020, for final posts to be added, so please be sure to thank your fellow teammates soon!

Dana MacGregor
said

Very interesting result! Why do you think that might be? 

Evan
said

Right now we are just recording the data, all seeds in the container with 5 seeds germinated, 11 out of 15 germinated in the container with 15 seeds, it seems like the more seeds you have the longer it takes to grow. I will have the heights of the plants later on today. 

Dana MacGregor
said

So... what is next? What are you guys up to now? 

Dana MacGregor
said

It is always exciting and satisfying when your predictions come true! Congratulations... so what do you think this means for seeds out in Nature? Perhaps seeds of the same species "don't want to" compete against each other so maybe it is better if some germinate this year and some wait until next year or next season. There has been a lot of thinking about 'seed rate' the number of seeds that a farmer plants within a particular space, as well. https://www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/reducing-maize-seed-rates-save-money-lift-starch is an article that might be an interesting read about maize (=UK for corn...) seed rates and how it affects the final corn products. 

Evan
said

We did predict that the container with 5 seeds would germinate faster, so far we are happy with these results. The 15 seed container could still grow more we will just have to wait and see.

Dana MacGregor
said

Your first observation, GREAT!

So... the pot with fewer seeds germinated faster than those with more... so what does that mean? Does it support or refute your original prediction? Are you happy about this result? Also, think about was it clear cut, or do you have any doubts about the results of the experiment...? How could you do it better next time? Remember, you do experiments to help you understand what happens in the wild... what do you think this means for seeds in the field or in Nature? 

Thanks for sharing these results!! 

Evan
said

The container with 5 seeds germinated faster than the container with 15 seed, we believe this happened because the 15 seeds need more space to grow.

Dana MacGregor
said

Depends... how long ago were they planted... days or hours? If it is hours then fine, if days, then you probably will be fine leaving it as it is because the ones planted later will be younger and therefore cannot compare germination times... Oh well... for next time!!!

 

Evan
said

I'm pretty sure Ms. Henderson already planted the seeds, will that matter or can we add another?

Dana MacGregor
said

Sorry! I should have been more clear... 

Above you wrote... 

We are using corn seeds and planting them 2 inches down with about 4 inches of soil. We decided to compare the number of seeds planted in a pot. -->2 pots will have 15 seeds <-- compared against -->one pot (control) will have five <--.

 

This gives you a total of three pots right? One with 5, two with 15... What I am suggesting is that you do two pots with 5 and two pots with 15. That way if the one pot of 5 falls over or doesn't grow, or fails for some reason out of your control then you not only have a back-up it also gives you better "POWER" to your results...

 

By "POWER" what I mean is that more data are always better ... just like Halloween candy, one is never enough. So if you *could* count 10 or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 pots of each then this would give you a much more powerful result than just counting 1 and it would give you a more accurate result as well. Usually though, counting that many is not realistic, and I am definitely not recommending you count 10,000 pots!, but you see my point. Usally three replicates (three pots of 5 seeds and three pots of 15 seeds in this case) is recommended as three allows you to do an *average* and therefore it takes into account things you cannot control - these replicates are important as they control for biological (maybe you just chose 5 "bad" seeds for the one pot) and technical (like how sunny it was in that spot compared to the other, or how much water each pot got) variation. 

 

In short, just one pot is not very powerful or accurate and setting up and counting two isn't that much more work than counting one... 

 

Does this make more sense? 

 

- Dana 

Evan
said

Thank you for the feedback, I'm afraid I don't know what you mean when you say two pots of one treatment against two pots of another.

Dana MacGregor
said

I think this is an interesting question - a good hypothesis in fact! You've made a prediction (that the pots with fewer seeds will germinate faster) and set up a means to test it. My one suggestion for you to think about ... is comparing two pots of 5 seeds per pot against one pot of 15 seeds per pot enough? Would it not be better to compare two pots of one treatment against two pots of another? 

Lisa Henderson
updated the project info
Lisa Henderson
updated the project info
Lisa Henderson
said

We changed our question, to does the number of seeds planted affect germination time? What do you think?

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