| Explore | Plants tend to grow best in certain areas of the world with different types of soil, example being corn in the midwest. We also know that different variables in the soil, being the pH level, the amount of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. We're curious as to what levels of each element as well as the pH level will see the most amount of growth in plants. |
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| Research Question | We are going to test the growth of plants in different soils. We knew that different nutrient levels such as phosphorus and nitrogen helped with plant growth so we decided to test that by measuring the growth of the plants in different soils with different nutrient levels. |
| Predictions | The plants in the richest nutrient soils will grow the best, and the others in the lesser soils will not grow as well. The plants in the richer nutritious soils will grow better because of higher pH levels and nutrients. |
| Experimental Design | We are testing the PH levels in the soil and how it effects growth. We will measure the plant in heigth of the plant. All the plants will get the same sunlight and the same amount of water. What we will change though is the PH in the soil. |
| Conclusion | The Miracle Grow Potting Mix is what grew the corn the best, resulting in the highest average dry mass and the highest average height for plant. The Indoor Potting Mix didn't yield results at all, and the Expert Potting Mix had an average weight similar to the Miracle Grow Mix, but not height. We shouldn't throw away our hypothesis yet, because we had a small testing size. Our most nutritious soil, the Indoor potting mix, produced very poor results. What we should do in the future is have more samples per soil, so that we eliminate any outliers and get a better understanding of what soil truly grows corn seeds the best. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| Teacher Name | Nichole Schelling |
| School Name | Medford High School |
| Session | Spring 2021 |