| Explore | We used three different types of plants, which were Cilantro, Nasturtium, and Peas. Throughout the experiment we have discovered that peas grow the best with sanity and have the best germination rates overall, but also they were more prone to mold and fungi over time. Nasturtium had a hard time germantion, and in both experiments nasturtium also was prone to molding with 15 grams of salt water and 35 grams of salt water. And lastly Cilantro we gained the least amount of information and research because we had no germination and no mold/fungi. |
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| Research Question | We wanted to see how salt water concentration affects certain plants like Peas, Cilantro and Nasturtiums. We wanted different types of salt water concentrations for different plants. Seeing how much salt water will decrease germination. We also wanted to know how different seeds reacted to different salt water measurements. |
| Predictions | The possible outcomes are that the seeds will mold with the salt water or the seeds will not grow because there is too much salt water concentration. Also another prediction of the experiment is with less sanity in water where seeds will grow faster and healthier. The explanation for the mold is the reaction to the salt in the water and it could not grow because the salt water prevents its growth. As the water evaporates there will be a higher density of salt which will cause more molding. |
| Experimental Design | The main plan / goal is to understand how salinity affects germination rates with different types of seeds. So how we conducted an experiment is we had 9 petri dishes, 3 for each type of seeds. And 10 in each petri, which equals to 30 cilantro, 30 nasturtium, and 30 pea seeds. Everyday we watered them with 3 mL of water. The variables we tested were how well those seeds germination under salinity stress. And we measured and observed the germination of growth and mold growth throughout the seeds. The variable that was constant was the amount of water and salt water concentration. And we recorded our data every day just to see how many seeds had started to germinate/mold. |
| Conclusion | We discovered/noticed that pea plants germinate faster over other seed types, Cilantro and Nasturtium. The main germinate came from pea plants with no salt water concentration. We did have some germination in pea plants with 15 grams of salt water concentration, but with the salt area plants started to mold after the water had evaporated leaving more salt then water. In the end of the experiment we had little to no other germination and lots of mold growth. For future experiments we would want to use seeds with the same density and size, because a problem we had was that cilantro seeds didn't like to soak up a lot of the water and didn't have the same germinated rates. Pea plants were a good seed option for this experiment because of the germination growth so next time use better seeds with faster germination rates like peas. With all the data we collected, it showed us that cilantro seeds were not the best seeds to use in the experiment since they grew at slower rates. To have better results and a better idea of how different plants germinated with different amounts of sanity we would like to have germination last longer and continue on to experiment longer. |
| 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 |