| Explore | Question 1: What do we know about plants from our experiences outside of school We need to take care of our plants every week or so Question 2: What have we discovered in class or in our background research We have discovered that guinea pig poop has been used for fertilizer But we have not seen guinea pig poop used for soil - Question 3: What questions about plants interest us - Some of the questions we were interested in are Growing seeds in Guinea Pig Poop and also growing seeds in vegetable oil |
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| Research Question | Our research question is “How does growing seeds in GPP affect the germination and growth rate?”. We want to test what amount of GPP/dirt to use to grow and germinate a seed the most efficiently. We came up with this question because there were Guinea Pigs next to us at the time so we came up with using their poop as fertilizer. One of the ways it fits what we already know is because a lot of people use some sort of poop as fertilizer so plants will grow faster because of the different chemicals that are carried in poop. |
| Predictions | I think that using guinea pig poop to help plants grow will help the plant grow faster and healthier. I think that this will happen because their poop is like fertilizer. |
| Experimental Design | Step 1. Prepare the dirt: One beaker will be filled with pure soil, the second beaker will only be fertilized with the GPP, and the third beaker will be filled with pure GPP. Step 2. Spray each beaker with 5 sprays of water every other day Step 3. Record how much the seed has grown every day at 4:00 (how many seeds have sprouted, what is the height of the plant compared to the others, how does it affect the appearance of the plant) Step 4. Compare the results |
| Conclusion | GPP is an okay fertilizer if used in the right amounts (Half GPP half dirt). It allowed the sprouts to grow tall (4.5 cm in a day), but the seeds took about a week and a half until they began to sprout. When they sprouted, they did it quickly. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Teacher Name | Sarah Ciupek |
| School Name | Ideaventions Academy for Math and Science |
| Session | Spring 2022 |
| About this Project | This team was pretty active and inquisitive since they started. - Joanna Lumbsden-Pinto, Scientist Liaison This team focused their research question on utilizing an incredibly local (think classroom level) resource as a propagation inducing fertilizer- guinea pig poop! It was an incredibly creative and fun idea, and they handled bumps along the way with creativity and intelligence. They had wonderful and informed ideas to make sense of their findings throughout the project. Overall, they were a joy to work with this semester! - Jessica Szetela, Scientist Mentor |
