| Explore | We know plants need sunlight, water, and good nutrient soil for a plant to be healthy and happy. Too much water can drown the plant but too little water may lead to the plant with no growth. Plants need plenty of sunlight to grow. In class we discovered and went more in depth with the structure of the plant. Like the nucleus, ribosomes, mitochondria, cell wall, membrane, golgi, and the cytoplasm. We went in depth in all of these vocab words and we learned what each part does and what its function includes. We also discovered all the parts played in photosynthesis and cellular respiration. What interests us is how plants can absorb Co2 and release oxygen that we can breathe. |
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| Research Question | Our goal is to determine how smoke product can affect the stomata density of a Pisum sativum. We came up with this test because of the distribution of smoke throughout a forest, in forest fires. We wondered how the smoke development changes the growth of a leaf. In order for us to breathe, stomata needs to be closed. The stomata is the key ingredient for humans and animals to breathe, so with a stomata density being affected, it can increase or decrease our oxygen levels. |
| Predictions | The possible outcomes of our study would be the more smoke exposure to the pea plant the less stomata density of the pea plant. Another possible outcome would be the leaves turning brown and shriveling up. Our explanation why this would happen is we know how fires and smoke can affect the real world forest and leads to the plants being dehydrated and destroyed. So we figured something similar would happen, as for the stomata density of the pea plant we just hypothesized the density would reduce. |
| Experimental Design | Our plan is to determine the change in stomata density affect the defect of smoke. Our experiment was tested using a gas chamber (17cm x 27 cm), 8 inches of twine saturated in potassium nitrate water solution (each must be completely dry before starting experiment) and 3 different planted Pisum sativum (6 seeds in each pot). The different variables we tested were our independent variable, different amount of smoke, and our dependent variable is the leaf stomata and length. The consistent variable was the leaf, which we marked and measured everyday. Each day our data was recorded on a notebook, and compared to the previous day. |
| Conclusion | The plant exposed to the most smoke ended up having a higher density stomata. The higher the smoke the more the leaves shrunk and grew smaller. The plant is trying to over compensate for carbon dioxide, causing higher stomata density. Judging by the pictures the higher smoked plants had higher stomata compared to the plants with little or no smoke. Future experiments could include plants with even higher smoke exposure. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| Teacher Name | Nichole Schelling |
| School Name | Medford High School |
| Session | Spring 2023 |
| About this Project | This group had a creative idea of exposing their plants to different amounts of smoke. They quickly realized how tough it can be to plan and set up an experiment. They went through some frustrations, but ultimately came up with a creative way to make their experiment work. It was fun watching them communicate with their mentor and figure out the significance of their experiment and what real life situations it can relate to. They kept a positive attitude and didn't give up on their original idea. -- Nichole Schelling, Teacher This team did a great job communicating with one another! They also designed one of the most innovated experiments I've seen yet! Elizabeth Scott, Scientist Liaison |