| Explore | We know that the 5 important aspects of plant growth are sun, water, soil, nutrients, and carbon dioxide. Our experiment is testing sun and carbon dioxide. |
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| Research Question | The question that we are testing is, do different environments affect plant growth? |
| Predictions | Our hypothesis is, If we plant our plants outside, then they will grow taller. We think this because it will have access to fresh air and nutrients. |
| Experimental Design | Procedure: Put soil in our plant trays Poke a holes in the soil (pencils will work) and put in the seeds (12 different sections per tray – 1 seed per section) Put the plants in their individual areas and make sure they all get the same amount of sunlight. Water them daily (use the moisture meter to determine how much water to put in) and document their growth (quantitative data) in the growth chart. Document observations (qualitative data) in the notebook. At the end, measure the height and write down the health of each of the plants, and the location of the tallest and healthiest seed tray will be deemed the best environment to plant a plant in. |
| Conclusion | The overall goal of our experiment was to find the best environment to grow a plant. We judged which location was best by which plants were tallest. As a result of our experiment, we found that radish seeds grow best outside with direct sunlight and average amounts of carbon dioxide. Our hypothesis that if we plant the plants outside, then they will grow the tallest was mostly supported, as the plants growing outside were the tallest, but only by 0.4cm. The outside plants had an average of 12.4cm, and the inside plants had an average of 12.0cm. The plants planted in the greenhouse were far behind, with an average of 10.34cm. Out of the 5 aspects of plant growth, our experiment tested both carbon dioxide and sunlight. One of our plant trays was in a classroom often occupied by large amounts of people, increasing the carbon dioxide levels, while the plants inside the greenhouse (which was occupied much less) and outside in a fenced–off area received average amounts of carbon dioxide. We could improve this experiment by watering the plants more equally, the greenhouse plants were watered substantially more then the inside plants, and the outside plants were somewhere in-between. We could also improve this experiment by taking more qualitative data, in order to have a better idea of what the plants looked like throughout the experiment. Plants can become ‘leggy,’ where they don't receive enough sunlight so they become longer and skinnier in their search for sunlight. A tall plant isn't always a healthy plant. So if we kept closer tabs on how they looked as well as their height, we would have had a better idea about which plant was really the healthiest. An additional experiment that could more deeply explore one of the ideas that we tested would be an experiment about the effects of different carbon dioxide levels on plant growth. Instead of testing different environments and types of sunlight as well as carbon dioxide, this one would be purely about carbon dioxide. There could also be more experiments like this one, testing different environments, except they would measure different things, instead of height, such as the size of their adult leaves by the end of the experiment and the amount of plants that died throughout. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Teacher Name | Shawn Kessler |
| School Name | Kavod Charter School |
| Session | Fall 2023 |
| About this Project | A good conversation, and a solid conclusion in which they incorporated elements of the mentoring provided into their thinking about what they discovered. -- Jennifer Hartley, Mentor |
