Info
| Explore |
Work on this next! What do we know about plants from our experiences outside of school? What have we discovered in class and background research? What questions about plants interest us? |
|---|---|
| Research Question | What do we want to test or study? How did we come up with the question(s). How does the question fit what we know about the topic? |
| Predictions | What are the possible outcomes of our study given the variables we are working with? What is our explanation for why and how we think this will happen? |
| Experimental Design | What is our plan? Be sure to include enough detail that another group can replicate our experiment. What variables will we test? What variables will we measure and observe? What variables will we keep constant? How will we record our data? |
| Conclusion | What claim can we make from our experiment? What are possible explanations for our results? How do the data we collected and our reasoning with scientific ideas support our claim? What future experiments could be done to expand on the results of this experiment? |
| About this Project |
Updates
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.
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.
Please come back and visit the PlantingScience Research Gallery Archive anytime (Found under Community>Projects) to view this project in the future. You can search the Archive by key word, team name, topic, or school name.
Good bye for now.
Warm regards,
The PlantingScience team
Maybe next time I will just plant with soil instead of sand. Sand seems a lot complicated in my part.
That's great you are learning about how plants accumulate mass. Carbon from the carbon dioxide in the air is incorporated into the plant over time via photosynthesis and sugar storage!
Have you learned anything else? Have you come up with any conclusions for your experiment?
also we found out that carbon is one of the main resons plants get mass
We are done with the plants and we won't have time to do the others.
Yes, the water would help with the sand, definitely, because sand dries out faster than soil due to the particle size. What else would you do differently (remember what I said about varying too many things at once!).
I think we should try and water them more Frequently. While starting the project we did not water the plants until we were told by the teacher we should be watering them each every other day.
Okay, so we've figured out that you have varied two variables instead of just one in your experiment. You have varied soil type and light. If you were to do it again, what would you do differently?
Sorry, my response about the plants were confusing and I messed up. Unfortunaley we didn't do light and no light with the same variable (Soil).
Ok, thanks Lamah!
So, does everyone understand why it is difficult to figure out if light is the culprit or soil is the culprit for why the plant isn't growing?
1 with sand and light and one with dirt and no light both have water.
So it sounds like you're having trouble figuring out why your plant in the light is not growing.
I'm still trying to visualize your experiment. Do you have 2 pots, 1 with sand and light and 1 with soil and no light, or do you have 4 pots--2 with sand, 1 with light and 1 without light, and 2 with soil, 1 with light and 1 without light?
If you only have the two pots this is a problem because you can't say whether the soil or the light is causing the difference in growth. From what we know about plants though, they should grow if given light, water, and nutrients. If they are not growing in the light and are in sand it might be that there isn't enough water for the seeds to germinate. Sand does not hold on to water very well because it has really big pore spaces between the sand particles.
Here's a video illustrating that:
Actually the plants that are receivieng light are not growing surprisingly, but the plants that are taking in light and water are not growing. They both have something different, the plants that are growing hase soil as the base and the ones that are not growing have sand as the bass. Maybe theres something there that's a problem with growing.
The plant that is growing without light is green at the tip and the rest of the stem is white. we have to stems right now and they are pretty long.
The one without light is green and white. The one with light is not growing.
the plant in the dirt seems to be growing but the plant in the sand seems not to be growing
What do the plants look like that are growing without light? Are they green? Do they look the same as the plants growing in light?
The seeds are growing even without light
where doing the floating disc project this week
I don't think this project relates back to plants. I'm not sure I may have to ask. Were only talking about the fish that migrate, because where going on a fieldtrip to a place where we are going to catch fish. Then we are going to have to study them.
We are still only seeing growth in cup 1 (the dirt cup)
Even without the light reaching the cup?
Yes, we are currently doing a new experiment. We have to choose a type of fish that was given to us during watching a slide show. I have gotten the smelt fish, we now have to draw our fish and explain where it lives and where it migrates.
That's neat! How is your teacher relating this back to plants? Are you talking about fish habitat at all?
Sounds like you all played a really fun game! Do you have any more information to share about your experiment?
Thanks Danielle and yes it did help, I have a better understanding of it now! Right now we just played a fish game, where you roll a dice and the fish moves whatever the dice rolls on. We start out with 100,000 fish and if we hit a danger spot, we lose fish due to things like weather, toxic waste, fisher man, etc. We have travel threw many different places until we reach the ending, which is the ocean.
we are playing a game abouts plants,yeah Funnnnn
What game did you play?
We planted are seeds and we are now seeing growth. In cup 1 we have dirt and we added water. However we blocked out all the light. In cup 2 we put our seeds in sand and we added water and we did not block out the light. There is only growth in cup 1.
Destiny,
Why are you using sand in one cup and soil in the other? If you want to test the effect of light alone, the only thing you should change between the two cups is light. So you would have everything set up exactly the same (same soil, same water amount, same seeds), then block only the sun from one cup.
We do this in science because we need something to compare the thing we're changing to. Without a light cup to compare the no-light cup to we wouldn't know what was supposed to happen in the absence of light.
If you wanted to test sand versus soil, you would do the exact same thing. You would keep everything the same except for what you wanted to test. In this case you would have same light, same water, and same seeds then only vary what you put the seeds in.
Does this make sense?
Danielle
I think that is because water has mostly all the mineral nutrients needed for a seed to grow. So the dish only with water has one growing source making it faster to grow. The other dish that grows with light and water needs 2 sources to grow. I am not 100% confidence about my answer, maybe it makes sense to you?
Hi Jairo,
When we think about plant growth we need to consider how plant use and store energy. Just like you get energy from the food you eat, plants also get energy from food--but food that they make.
Plants do photosynthesis, which creates sugars (carbohydrates) from nutrients and sunlight. Pure water doesn't have any nutrients in it, but water in the soil does because all of the nutrients found in the soil (Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium, for example) dissolve in the water. The plant then takes up the water and the nutrients together, and transports them around the plant. During photosynthesis there are two different types of reactions that occur--light dependent reactions that occur only when the plant gets light, and light independent reactions that occur all the time regardless of whether light is present.
When plants grow it is because they are using the sugars they made from the light and the nutrients they obtained. Without light they can't complete photosynthesis, and therefore can't make any sugars (food) to eat.
Plants that germinate with water alone are using energy that's already stored in their seed. That energy is also sugar, but it came from the mother plant. She gave the seeds a little bit of food for their journey, but only enough to get them started in the soil when they have no light. If those plants don't get any light after they germinate, they'll run out of food and won't grow anymore. Eventually they die from lack of sunlight.
Does that help?
Danielle
The seeds are starting to grow
Why do you think that is, Jairo?
Dish 2, the dish with only water as growth, has grown more than the other dishes.
For dry seeds
Dish 1 H20 and light is 0.19g
Dish 2 H20 and no light 0.45g
Dish 3 No H20 but light 0.11g
We are now planting our seeds.
We found the weight for each dry seed.
We are now starting to plant and/or grow the carrot seeds!
We are deciding on how we should plant the seeds.
We have seen some results and growth in our carrot seeds.
we are starting to plant the carrot seeds.
Sounds like you are starting to get results! Looking forward to hearing what happened. :)
we weighed the plant seeds.
I just put some of the seeds onto a napkin and where waiting for our teacher to tell us whats next then I dried them
Our plants are starting to grow! We are going to weigh them soon. What I have learned about the DNA is there were more than 1000 DNA molecules just so we can see a little piece of something that looked like spider web.
The seeds have grown the ones that did is the one with water and no light
Any movement on your seeds yet?
Sounds like you all had a good time getting banana DNA. What did you learn about DNA from the DNA lab?
I think the one with the water and light would sprout because the heat will evaporate the water and make it most in the cup
Hello Danielle, today we have done another lab. We took a cut piece of banana and put extraction buffer in it and mixed them both up. We then put the smashed banana into a cynlinder. Then we took ethanol and mixed it with the smashed up banana liquid which then the DNA started to appear. Overall it was a fun lab and I enjoyed seeing the DNA.
today we took DNA out of a banana, it was a really fun lab.
Chris
Today we took out DNA from a banana and it looked like salt.
Thanks for all the updates! What do you all think will happen to the different dishes? Which one do you think will have the most sprouts?
In my opinion the dish 1 with no sunlight will not grow due to no vitamin D or nutrients. Dish 2 with sunlight and water will grow overtime. Dish 3 the one without water will most likely not grow in my opinion.
Jairo,
Plants actually don't need vitamin D like people do. They do need some of the same nutrients we need though, like calcium and potassium. The nutrients most important to plant growth are called macronutrients and include things like calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
I think you are right in saying that the one with water and light will grow over time. Remember when you're making your predictions that with water you might get some sprouting because of the stored energy in the seed from the mother plant. The thing that will be missing from those seeds is further growth, which you should see in the light and water seeds.
I think the one with the water and light will
but for now nothing happen
Why do you think the one with water and light will sprout the most?
we started the project and it has been 24hrs but nothing had happened
1st day and no growth of the carrot seeds.
We looked at our seeds and so far there is no growth.
As a group we did the radish experiment. We did not have radishes seeds so we used carrot seeds. Instead of using 1.0g of radish seeds we used 0.1g of carrot seeds. We put 15mm of water in dish 1 and dish 2. We had water in dish 1 and we also put dish 1 under light. In dish 2 we put water but we covered them so we light would not get to them. In dish 3 we did not put water in with the seeds. However we put dish 3 under light. We are going to wait and check on our seeds every day to see what happens.
Hello Danielle and thank you for explaining to me about trees! In class today my group and I did an experiment on carrot seeds. The teacher gave us 0.1G of carrot seeds in 3 dishes. Two of the dishes we filled with 15mm of water. Now we have to wait and see the growth of the seeds.
Today my group and I did a experument on seeds. the teacher gave us 0.1g of seeds and we put .15g of water
we are using not 1.0g of seeds, we are using 0.1g of carrot seeds. and 15 mm of water
Hi Everyone,
It looks like you all have questions about how trees accumulate mass, particularly redwood trees! I'm happy to help you understand that and am so glad you're learning about this in class.
You are all absolutely correct in saying that plants get their mass from nutrients, water, and light. However, the plant has to take those different ingredients and turn them into sugars before it can grow and increases its mass.
Trees actually have two different types of tissues that transfer water and nutrients and sugars throughout the plant. They act like tubing or plumbing inside of the plant. The tissues that transfer water and nutrients from the roots upward to the shoots (leaves and tree trunk) are is called xylem. The tissue that transfers the sugars created during photosynthesis down to the roots for storage is called phloem.
Photosynthesis creates sugars from light energy, water, and raw nutrients like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and others through a complex chemical process that has a lot of steps. At the end of photosynthesis those sugars are transferred around the plant for storage in the roots (root growth) or growth of the trunk and leaves (shoot growth).
Without having the basic ingredients to use during photosynthesis, the plant will not be able to save any energy and put it toward increasing growth and mass. Therefore the plant would stay the same size or may even lose mass as it uses more energy than it stores. After enough years of losing mass, trees usually die.
Any other questions?
Danielle
chris,
is it true the rings on the inside of a tree tell you how hold is it.
Hi Chris,
This is also 100% true. Some rings will be smaller than others because of less than ideal growing conditions (like a drought), but you can count the rings of a tree and it will definitely tell you how old it is.
chris again,
i have another question, is it true that some trees take really big breathes,like inhale in the morning and then exhale at night.
Hi Chris,
It is definitely true that plants breathe, but instead of breathing in oxygen like us they breathe in carbon dioxide. And, unlike us, they exhale oxygen while we exhale carbon dioxide.
Plants have little slits in their leaves called stomata that allow them to take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. These close up when the plant is water stressed so it doesn't lose water through the slits. Some plants have evolved over time to open their stomata only at night to avoid losing water during the hot parts of the day. This is especially true in dry climates, like the desert.
Plants don't need to breathe in the same way humans do, because they can slow down photosynthesis when conditions are stressful or they are low on water. Us humans can't do that because we need a constant supply of oxygen!
As a group we looked at a seed of a giant redwood tree and a giant redwood tree. I think that the giant redwood tree gets their mass from nutrients.
Hi it Lammah and I think red wood trees get there mass from photosynthesis and nutrients
Nice to meet you Danielle and thank you for answering my question! Recently we have been asked a question in class asking "Where do trees get their mass from?" In specific our teacher asked about a "Red Tree." In my opinion trees and/or seeds get their mass from nutrients from the soil and/or ground. I am not 100% sure my answer is correct but its educated guess.
Thank you for looking at my post!
we were looking at the redwood trees and i think the trees get the mass from photosyntosythe and nutrients.
chris,
Hi everyone,
I have already started answering some of your questions but wanted to introduce myself anyway. My name is Danielle and I am a graduate research assistant at Penn State studying forest plants and how they respond to deer browsing and soil chemistry.
I love being outside, hunting, and have 2 dogs and 3 cats.
Nice to meet you all!
How long can trees live for?
Destiny,
Most trees live to be hundreds of years old, but some can live to be THOUSANDS of years old! The oldest recorded tree (I had to look this up because I didn't know!) is a spruce tree in Sweden and is approximatly 9,550 years old.
The oldest trees I've ever seen in person were when I was in an old growth forest in Michigan where some of the trees were 300+ years old. Size doesn't tell you much about how old a tree is, either, some of the small ones can be the oldest in a stand!
could we use photosynthesis to run are whole planet.
Hi Chris,
We actually already use photosynthesis to run the whole planet! During photosynthesis plants absorb carbon dioxide (what we breathe out) and release oxygen (what we breathe in). Without them we would not be able to survive because there wouldn't be an atmosphere filled with oxygen. This change in the atmosphere occurred about 2.45 billion years ago thanks to a small bacteria called cyanobacteria, which actually did (and still do!) photosynthesis. These bacteria have chloroplasts like plants and are still around today.
Photosynthesis is also really important for food production, because of something called a energy transfer. Basically, energy cannot be created or destroyed, it is only transferred from one organism to another. So if I eat a salad, I'm eating the energy that that plant transferred into its leaves from nutrients and the sun and using it for my own energy needs. Eventually get old and pass away, my body will go back to the earth for decomposers to transform that energy back into the ground. That energy is in the form of nutrients, which plants then uptake and the process repeats. This happens with animals too, so a deer that eats plants that is then eaten by a human is transferring the energy from the plant to the deer to the human. Without plants and photosynthesis we would not have the ability to survive, because we can't harvest the energy from the ground or the sun on our own, and neither can any other animals. Plants are crucial to life as we know it.
In terms of electrical energy to power our cars and TVs and smartphones, plants don't produce enough electrical signals for that. There is talk of using the oils produced by algae as a biofuel for cars, but that technology is very expensive and not viable as a fuel yet.
Danielle
Hello, my name is Jairo. Beautiful weather we are having? I am a sophomore that is studying plants. Recently my teacher also known as Ms.Cost taught me and my class about plants and there important parts. I have learned about photosynthesis, were the plants take in energy to produce food. We also have learned about Cellular respiration and/or Atp and Adp. I don't really have any questions to ask other than, how do plants get there color? There are many different plants with different color, and I want to know why? Other than that I am glad to be able to talk to a professional, its an honor.
Hi Jairo,
Thanks for letting me know what your class has been up to. It is great to meet you!
Flower color is determined by chemistry, particularly pigment compounds called anthocyanins or carotenoids. Carotenoids are yellow, orange (think carrots!) and some red colors, while the anthocyanins produce purple, blue, pink, and some reds as well.
The green parts of plants is caused by chlorophyll, which absorb all colors of light EXCEPT for green, which is why plants look green.
It's weird to think about, but the color we see when we look at something is actually the light being reflected back off of a surface. Light has spectrum of colors that are present within it (think of a rainbow, the light is separated into those colors because of how it reflects across the sky. Normally we don't see that because all the colors are together in a single ray). When something looks red, it means that the subject is absorbing all colors except for the red part of the spectrum. When something is black it is absorbing all the colors (not reflecting anything), and when something is white it is reflecting all of the colors (not absorbing any).
Let me know if you have any more questions!
Danielle
Hi my name is Lammah and I have a question. What do you like about the your job the most? And also how did you get your job?
Hi Lammah,
I love a lot of things about my job, but if I had to pick one thing it would be getting to work outside. I spend all summer out in the woods collecting data, and I have got to see black bears (one ate my lunch one time!), turkeys, deer, and tons of wildflowers and plants. It is really hard work (sometimes we get rained on or it's really hot) but I have a lot of fun doing it.
I got my job through a posting online that was looking for someone to run the project I work on now. I applied, visited Penn State, then was offered the job. I moved about 400 miles from where I was from but I love it here and wouldn't change a thing!
Hello, my name is Destiny. How do flowers get their smell?
Hi Destiny,
Flowers get their smell from chemical compounds that evaporate into the air to form a vapor. Every type of flower has a smell that is recognizable to pollinators, which is what attracts them to the flower (along with the shape and color of the flower). 90% of the worlds plants are pollinated, so without pollinators we'd be in trouble!
Hi it's lammah what is your favorite part of the job
Hi my name is chris and I have a question what do you like most about your job