Great job, Queen Beans! Your figures are very clear, and you have labeled the axes and provided an excellent legend so that I can read and understand the graph very easily.

I enjoyed working with you on this project and I'm glad you had fun! 

-Megan

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

Hello Megan,

Thank you for all your help throughout this experiment. We definitely learned a lot and are still learning more about the information even today. We were doing research and learned that the fluorescent light and the purple light have a similar wave length! Finding this information was super cool and we were really proud! I will be sending our graphs for trial #1 and #2. Have a wonderful week and thanks again!

Hope you guys have had fun with this project! As I understand it, you are wrapping up data collection this week. Good luck, and I look forward to seeing any of the final results that you all come up with.

-Megan

Hope you guys have had fun with this project! As I understand it, you are wrapping up data collection this week. Good luck, and I look forward to seeing any of the final results that you all come up with.

-Megan

Hi Megan, 

We had a long break last week so did not start a second trial but planned for the trial we are running this week, the data from the first trial did not seem to have a pattern but rather scattered germination rate. In our second trail that we set up and started on Monday April 17, 2017 we moved around the boxes to see if the heat from the lamps may have an effect on the rate of germination of our soybeans. We are being sure to take extra data and tracking down everything that happens each day including the number of germinating seeds, if the paper towel in the Petri dish dries out, and how much water is still in there. 

I agree with you in having a visual medium to represent our data than just numeric facts. I think that a presentation with pictures to show the germination of the seeds along with graphs to show the changes observed each day. 

I look forward to seeing how this all turns out!

Hello Megan, sorry for such a late reply! We just got back from a longer weekend, and did not start our second trial until this week. We are being more detailed with this trial and are very excited for the results! I have always liked using colorful graphs because they help others understand better and are more fun to look at. I also have a Cricket, which is a paper cutting machine, that should help give our results more engaging to look at. We should be posting more pictures soon. Thank you once again!

It seems like you all most liked setting up the experiment - this is one of my favorite parts, too. Setting up usually involves a lot of hands-on work, and makes me feel like I am accomplishing something tangible. At the end of the day - you can see it! All the lovely shoeboxes with filters! (That you guys sent me great photos of!)

The challenging parts for me are often the brainstorming or figuring of logistics - like you guys mentioned, figuring out how to construct those filters in the first place, or how much to water the seedlings to keep those little guys alive is essential to the experiment. But this is the least tangible kind of work - it mostly happens in my head, or from drawing pictures or writing down ideas to problem-solve. At the end of the day, these things don't usually have a physical accomplishment. So it is more difficult for me to be satisfied by problem solving, even though it is an absolutely necessary part of the experiment.

I am looking forward to seeing your data tables and the results of what you found out in your experiment! Have you all thought about how you will present your results? I like to use some kind of visual medium in my report write ups, such as photos, or graphs. Usually these are more exciting and meaningful than numbers.

-Megan

It was challenging trying to figure out how to set up the experiment. After brainstorming it became evident that we needed to have enclosed spaces, such as boxes, for each color. I have enjoyed seeing how the color's have effected the germination process.

It was challenging trying to figure out how to set up the experiment. After brainstorming it became evident that we needed to have enclosed spaces, such as boxes, for each color. I have enjoyed seeing how the color's have effected the germination process.

I'm still interesting in hearing what you have enjoyed most or found most challenging about setting up your experiments! As you have time, of course.

-Megan

Setting up the experiment was pretty simple. It mostly consisted of getting the materials and finding space to set up. The hardest part was finding a red filter. We ended up having to use a different kind of filter, because the red one we were originally going to use, did not actually filter the red light. We ended up asking the drama department for a piece of the red filter they put over their lights during productions.

Hi team! 

I hope you all have been doing well! I was gone for the last two weeks on a trip for a field ecology course in Ecuador. To see some photos of trees and what my friends and I did on the field course, click here! I most enjoyed learning how to identify some of the common tree families there. The most challenging part for was learning the bird species - it involved going on very early morning walks and trying to spot all of the different tiny markings on birds. I succeeded seeing and identifying a very pretty species - the great jacamar (pic), which is a very pretty bird that lives in the rainforest.

I heard that you guys have had a busy week with the wrap-up of 3rd quarter - that's great! Hopefully you're all clear of the stress of finals. 

I'm excited to see pictures of your experiment set-ups as you get finished with them! 

I'd like to hear from all of you what you have enjoyed most or found most challenging about setting up your experiments. I would also like to read your hypotheses, if you have them written down.

-Megan

Materials

1. We will have five lamps, all having a different colored filter. We will also have a dark group and a fluorescent group.we will then take 7 boxes, each with 3 Petri dishes inside. In the Petri dishes, we will place 5 beans. We will then place them all in their designated place, under the lamps or in the dark environment.

2. We do have lamps that will be provided.

3. A fellow teacher, at our school, is providing filters to put in front of the lamp light.

Timeframe

4. We will run many different trials with this experiment until it is over.

5. We will be using soybeans. They will take 3 to 5 days to germinate.

6. We will keep the lights on at all times. When there is a weekend, we will come back and measure the growth.

Hi team! Light color effect on germination is a very interesting research topic, and I think this will be a great project.

I have uploaded one article that is relevant to the interests of your experiment, because they talk about using a lot of different colors of light (red, orange, blue, green, purple) in their experiments, like you guys do. So take a quick look through if you have time (especially the results section where they say specifically what happened to each plant under each color light).

I have some questions to give you all ideas of things to think about, organized by category below.

materials:

1. how will you set up the experiment? 

2. do you have lamps? 

3. how will you make the light differently colored?

timeframe:

4. how long will this experiment run? 

5. do you know how long it normally takes for beans to germinate?

6. how long will you keeps the lights on for each day? will you be able to access the lights to turn them off and on? what about on weekends?

research questions:

1. what are your hypotheses? what would you expect each color light to do to plant germination, and why?

2. in what kind of environment do your type of beans germinate? are they light-germinating or dark-germinating? (you could add a “dark” treatment to your experiment, or test two kind of seeds, one that is light-germinating and one that is dark-germinating)

3. how will you measure germination? simply by marking the first day that the seed breaks open? 

4. what are other data points that you could write down from the same experiment? 

something that I think of is marking down when certain features appear: the roots, stem, and first leaves. or you could measure the growth of the plant each day after it emerges. that way you have more than one data point for each plant, so if you miss an important day (for example, if the plant germinates over the weekend), you won’t miss out on your entire data point.

These questions are just ideas for conversation starters, I certainly don't expect you to answer all of them! Overall, I think your project is going in a great direction and I'm looking forward to see how you refine it. :)

-Megan 

Hi Megan, 

We were thinking of testing how the color of light effects germination. We were thinking of using red, blue, green, purple, and orange colored lights. For a controlled group we were thinking of having one group of beans under normal fluorescent lighting. Let us know if you have any suggestions. Also if you could share any resources with us about possible background information or other topics related to this experiment. 

Thanks You, 

Queen Beans

Hi Megan, 

We were thinking of testing how the color of light effects germination. We were thinking of using red, blue, green, purple, and orange colored lights. For a controlled group we were thinking of having one group of beans under normal fluorescent lighting. Let us know if you have any suggestions. Also if you could share any resources with us about possible background information or other topics related to this experiment. 

Thanks You, 

Queen Beans

Hi team! Hope you guys had a great weekend.

I would love to hear about your brainstorming for your research project. What have you guys been talking about in class to prepare for it?

It's not necessary to have a research question in mind yet. When I think of projects I want to do, I like to think of directions to explore under the umbrella of the larger topic.

For instance, when I was coming up with my research project, I knew I wanted to look at some aspect of how humans influence the environment and change forests in Gabon. That topic lead me to think about different groups of people manage the forests that they own. Many different people own land and forests in Gabon. I picked two ways that humans manage the forest, because wanted to keep my project size manageable, and I knew it would be easiest to compare two different management styles.  Because I've worked in the area before, I knew that there was a community-managed forest and a logging-company-managed forest right next to each other near this village. Since the forests are next to each other, it would be easy to set up similar experiments in both. Now, I have a much narrower, more manageable topic and site to think up research questions in.

Sometimes the reasons for picking certain topics or places is scientific, sometimes it's logistic, and sometimes it's a mix between the two!

If you're having trouble thinking of ideas or would like to organize them in a different way, you could write down your "umbrella" topic, then a couple of topic "directions", and then a couple of specific things that are interesting or confusing to you in those directions. Writing things down always helps me organize my thoughts better, as I am a very visual person.

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

-Megan

Hi Megan, 

My name is Amber, I am a senior at Medford Public School. I enjoy painting and volunteering at a multitude of nonprofits and organizations. I am very involved in various organizations including Speech Team, Students Against Destructive Decisions, Student Council, and various plays and musicals within the school. After high school I plan to use my passion for helping others by attending college at Southwest Minnesota State University and acquiring a business management degree with a minor in communication to hopefully manage a nonprofit in the future. I find Biology an interesting topic to learn a maltitude of new things and look forward to working with you in our planting science project! :)

My name is Skylar, I'm a junior at Medford high school. My hobbies include, but are not limited to, napping, traveling, binging Netflix (mainly stranger things), and design/photography. I am planning on perusing a career in Business-law after high school. I am currently taking this CN biology class to get it out of the way for college, because I am not very good nor I am interested in since. 

Since this is a "planting science" project, my favorite plant is a strawberry bush, because I love strawberries and we have a strawberry bush by our house that we pick from occasionally 

Thank you for your help with this project, I look forward to work with you.

Hi! 

My name is Jenna and I am in 11th grade. I am a part time high school student, and a part time PSEO student. I am president of my 4-H club, and am involved with many other extra-curricular activities incuding student council, and NHS. I also participate in gymnastics and track. 

I live on a farm and love my two dogs. I am taking this class because after I graduate high school I want to transfer the college credits I have earned in high school to a four-year university and major in nursing. Eventually I want to be a pediatric or neonatal nurse because I love kids. 

Hi,

my name is Taylor. I am currently a high school/ pseo student at Medford High School. I am a junior in high school and a freshman in pseo. I am involved in many activities and organizations. One of my main goals for my future is to be successful, and be able to support my family. I hope to either major in bio-chem or law. 

My favorite hobbies are dance, theatre, and speech team. I hope to continue with my hobbies after highschool through community theatre and dance at college.

My favorite plant would have to be a sunflower because my moms favorite color is yellow. Also, they grow incredibly tall and I've always wanted to be tall.

Hello Megan, 

My name is Emily. I am a junior at Medford Public School in MN. Right now, the weather is extremely cold compared to the warm weather you are probably enjoying! I am the president of the student council, and I also participate in a lot of volunteer work. When I grow up I hope to become an RN and major in Midwifery. I another little passion project I am hoping to start, is a nonprofit when I'm older. My favorite type of plant is a succulent. I can't wait to work on this project with you. Thank you for all help and consideration with this project.

We should trade banana bread recipes! :)

Hi team!

My name is Megan. I'm a PhD student at Yale University and I study how trees regenerate in forests in Gabon, which is a country in central Africa.

I look at patches of forests that are owned by different people. In Gabon, some patches of forests are owned by logging companies and some patches of forest that are owned by local people who live in villages.

I want to know if there are differences in the kinds of seedlings (baby plants!) that grow in the logging forest and the village forest. To do this, I spend a lot of time counting all of the seedlings in big, square plots and identifying all of the species that are there. Then when I get back home, I put all of the data into the computer and compare which patches of forests have more seedlings, and if the different patches of forests have different species of seedlings in them. If you'd like to read about the village that I work in, click here to read a WWF article about it!

When I am not working in Africa, I am at work on campus in New Haven, analyzing my data or writing papers about what I have found. In my spare time, I like to go rock climbing, ride my bike, and bake banana bread :)

I was a planting science mentor last semester and it was a blast! I can't wait to meet you guys and hear about what cool experiments you are doing!

-Megan

Welcome!

I am happy to welcome you to this community of plant researchers. Your team has the opportunity to be mentored by a scientist to help you develop and perform your own research project. The mentor's role is to encourage and guide you through the scientific process of discovery. The more you share your ideas and research information online, the more your mentor can help.

Please introduce yourself and post some possible research topic ideas to get a conversation rolling.

These resources are available to help you get started:

Student Roadmap through a Science Investigation

Plant Investigation Toolkit

Best wishes as you start this scientific journey. We are all pleased to share this experience with you. Have fun!

Sincerely, The PlantingScience team