| Explore | Plants tend to grow towards the light as well as upwards. In school, we learned that plants have a positive phototropism, meaning that it wants to grow towards light, and plants also have a negative geotropism, meaning they want to grow away from gravity. We were interested in what would happen if the plant became conflicted between these two forces. |
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| Research Question | Does flipping the plant and letting it grow inverted affect the plant’s growth? Our initial idea was to utilize angles to see how that would affect plant growth, but after talking with our teacher, we decided to try growing the plant inversely. The light for the plants growing inversely would be placed below them. The plants want to grow towards the light, but that would mean growing towards gravity. Therefore, because of their negative geotropism and positive phototropism, they will become conflicted. |
| Predictions | The possible outcomes for our study would be that the plants grown inverted would either be taller, the same size, or shorter than the plants grown normally. Our prediction is that the plants grown inverted will be shorter than those grown normally. Because the inverted plants want to grow towards light and away from gravity, the two forces will stunt their growth since they would not know which way to grow— towards light or upwards? |
| Experimental Design | The rock wool is stuck between grates of two upside down locker shelves. These shelves are suspended above two bins full of water. The plants are planted in the rock wool. The plants that are being inverted are remove from the bin, still in the locker crate. Then the locker shelf has it's legs attached so it is sticking up and the plants are placed down above a light so that they hang down. |
| Conclusion | |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | High Technology High School |
| Session | Fall 2017 |