| Explore | Before we took this class we knew about photosynthesis, evergreen leaves are always green, and cacti store rainwater in them. We now know that plants get sick, gymnosperms, angiosperms, and potato soft rot. How does potato soft rot travel from plant to plant? Why do potatoes smell so bad when they have potato soft rot? Are there any similarities between human and plant DNA? Why is there algae in a swimming pool? |
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| Research Question | How does water affect potato soft rot? |
| Predictions | The bag with the most water will make the potatoes soggy. We think this will happen because when we first did it they were a little soggy. So we think these will become very soggy. The constant will be soft and damp. When we did the experiment before the potatoes were soft and moist so we think that happen again. The bag with no water will be rotting. We think this one will be the smelliest and most solid because no water will affecting it. |
| Experimental Design | Our plan was to have 3 potatoes, a control, one with minimal amounts of water and one with about an inch of water. We first inoculated our control potato and sealed it in an air tight bag. Then we took our second potato inoculated it and wrapped it in two wet paper towels. Then we stuck it in a another air tight bag. Finally we inoculated out third potato then wrapped it in two soaked paper towels. Then we dumped about an inch of water in the bag. We were testing to see how different amounts of water affect potatoes. We measured how much water was in the bag. We observed how the potatoes reacted to the different amounts of water. Were keeping the air tight bag, the amount of inoculated holes in the potato constant, and the type of potatoes. Were recording our data based off how soggy and destroyed the potatoes became. |
| Conclusion | Most of our predictions were right except we would switch the control and the one with the most water. The control was hard and growing something on the outside. On the inside of the potato it had bubbles and had a reddish tint. The potato with the most water was very mushy and could fall apart easily, the skin was starting to peel off. Water affects potato soft rot because it makes the texture of the potato more slushy. The one with no water started to grow a greenish stem and the potato was hard and it still felt like a normal potato. Our experiment could have gone wrong if the more water we had didn't do anything to the potato and the texture of it. If we didn't inoculate the potato the right way then the effects of our experiment would not be the same. What we can conclude about soft rot is that when soaking potatoes in water it makes them very mushy and causes a bad smell. The more water that you use, the faster the potato will rot. |
| Investigation Theme | PGST |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | Mercy McAuley High School |
| Session | Fall 2019 |