Hi Cheery Cherry Blossoms!

I've been looking over the files you posted and I think the graphs and journals I've seen are really great.  I have a question about your conclusion, though.  The last sentence is that the whole embryo needs to be present in order for the plant to grow, but the graphs show that there was some growth in all of them.  Do you think it's accurate to say that a plant won't grow without the whole embryo?  Is that what your data shows?  

It's OK to say that they grew but didn't grow well.  It's also OK to say that you were wrong in your hypothesis - that's what science is all about!!  Regardless of your hypothesis, it's more important to make accurate statements about your experiment than to be "right." 

I really enjoyed this project.  I've been mentoring with Planting Science for many years and although I see a lot of the same experiments year after year, this is the first time I've seen this one.  I think it was a really creative idea and very interesting to find out what would happen!  Great work, Cherrry Blossoms!  

Hi Cheery Cherry Blossoms,

I just read your revised conclusion and I think it's great!  You pointed out what parts of your hypotheses were correct, and where you may have made errors.  This is perfect for the next scientists who want to replicate your work - they'll know exactly what to watch out for!

I hope you've enjoyed working on this experiment and that it's given you some new insights into how scientists do these kinds of experiments.  

Science on!!

Kate

Hi Kate,

We are working on fixing our conclusion now. We also uploaded the final version of our journals and graphs. We all wanted to thank you for all of your help and feedback during this project. 

Thank you, Cheery Cherry Blossoms

Hi Team,

Here's your to do list:

Make sure you have answered all your mentor's questions.

Clean up your old files - delete older journals. Update only the latest journal version that includes your conclusion on what the data and observations collected means. Rename it so the journal includes your first name only (TimsJournal.jpg) and upload to the file section.

Graphs: Make sure each of you has uploaded your graph. Use the same file naming format so I know whose graph is whose. (TimsGraph). You should also post a png or jpeg of the graph in the Updates with your explanation of how the data supports or does not support your prediction. This will let your mentor know what you are thinking and they may have some suggestions or questions before you post the final draft of your group's conclusion in the Info section. Your group will need to agree and support the conclusion with evidence and your reasoning.

Post your final conclusion and thank your mentor! Now you are ready to make your poster so you can present your findings to the class!

Hi Kate 

We decided that our hypothesis was partly correct. It was not a greatly detailed hypothesis. The seeds that had the entire inside intact did grow but the ones without the whole inside (half seeds) didn't grow. We also are about to post our conclusion so tell us if it needs any work.

Thanks so much,

Cheery Cherry Blossoms

Hey Kate,

We just wanted to let you know that we will be uploading our conclusion shortly. We also wanted to thank you for being our mentor for this experiment! We had so much fun working on this project and certainly could not have done it without your help!Thank you so, so much Kate!

-Hannah

Dear Kate,

Thank you so much for all of your help on our project. Thank you for helping us fix all of the problems we had and helping us find a solution.

Sincerely,

Julie

Hey Kate

Thank you so so so so much for a fantastic mentor. Thanks for all of your suggestions and for helping us out.

Lucy

Hey Team.

I see you updated your graph - it looks great!

Have you made any conclusions?  Do you have any questions?  

Hey Team.

I'm really glad that you were able to get some interesting results!  

Please feel free to ask any more questions that might come up as you write your conclusions.

Kate

Dear Kate

We also dissected the one half seed that grew but we did not discover anything.

Hey Kate,

We haven't been measuring or watering our plants, as we did an experiment over the past week. We will be gone for the next week for April vacation, and are going to write our conclusion, and update our journals for the last time. We will also make sure to write about what we would do differently if we did it again and we would like to figure out why only one of the half seed plants grew. Thanks so much for the help and we will talk next week!

The Cheery Cherry Blossoms 

Hi Cheery Cherry Blossoms!

Your graph looks great.  I have a few suggestions for you - you can spread out the dates across the bottom axis so they are not so squished together.  You can also label them by day (day 1, day 2) etc. That would clean up the bottom of your graph a bit and make it easier to read.  The next person who wants to replicate your experiment will looking at how many days it took to get to a certain height, not which day on the calendar it reached that height.  

Have you started thinking about your conclusions?

Often when we finish experiments, we want to think about what we would do differently if we could do it again, knowing what we know now.  Do you have any ideas on how you would change your experiment to improve it?

Do you have any questions about what happened in your experiment?

Kate

Hi Kate, 

We are finished with our experiment now so everything that is on this site is the new and updated version. 

Sincerely,

Cheery Cheery Blossoms

Hi Kate, 

We are finished with our experiment now so everything that is on this site is the new and updated version. 

Sincerely,

Cheery Cheery Blossoms

Hi Katie and Team,

I just uploaded the final version of the graph. The graph has the averages for each experimental group. The full seeds had the best growth overall. 

Thanks Maya

Hey Kate

Today we watered all of our plants. We noticed that some of our cups started to smell. Mrs. Buzzell told us that this was because we were not letting the cups drain. We took pins and poked three holes in the bottom of each cup. We let the water drain out in the sink, then put them back on the table with paper towels underneath. our plants are still looking quite droopy even with the popsicle sticks holding them up. We are starting to wrap up our project. Our April break starts one week from Monday. We are also updating our experimental design to make it more clear. 

Thanks so much,

 Cheery Cherry Blossoms

P.S. When we are posting on here, we are all contributing to what is being said.

I was reading your journals and I noticed that most of you have detailed planting information that you could easily cut and paste into your experimental design - this would help get your revisions started. 

Also, do you think the total number of seeds that sprouted per cup is significant? I notice that your group seems to only be looking at height.

Soil - if it seems to be dried out, it's ok to give them a little more water. This could be why they seem to be brown. They also don't love being handled - are you using string held next to the plant to measure or are you lifting it up and holding it against a ruler? 

Hi Team!

Make sure that you are all posting observations and questions to your mentor equally. Take turns - and if you have a question or observation that one of your team mates has left off, it's ok to post!!

Keep up the good work! 

Hi Team.

I've been reading over your journals - great work!

I agree with Ms. Buzzell that you need more detail - more detail is always better!  Often as scientists we want to duplicate and experiment to pick up where someone else left off to learn more from their discoveries, so we need to know exactly what they did to get their results.  

I see from some of the journals that some plants are drooping - do you have any ideas why this might be?  It looks like the heights of the full seeds are going down.  Is that because you're measuring them top to bottom and they're drooping so they're shorter, or are they actually shorter than they were before?

Keep on measuring!

Kate

Hi Team, 

I still have questions about your experimental design. I would have a hard time duplicating your experiment the way it is written. I don't know what kinds of seeds you are using, or if when you are testing if half a seed grows, if you planted both halves of the same seed or if you cut a seed in half, planted half and threw half away... How deeply did you plant the seeds? How often are they watered? Did you keep all other conditions the same? (amount of light, type of pot/soil used?)

Think of your design as a recipe. If you gave three groups of people your instructions, would their experimental setups look just like yours or do you think they would have questions and possibly a different setup than yours?

Hey Kate,

Today we measured again and the results are just the same, with a bit more growth. We were informed by our teacher that we will probably keep our experiment running for about another week. These are the averages for today;

Full-32.75 cm.

Half-1.95 cm.

W/O Shell-14.05 cm.

Thanks,

The Cheery Cherry Blossoms

Thanks Kate!

Today was a watering day. It looks like the growth is slowing a bit, but they still continue to grow! Except for the four other half seed cups, of course. These are the averages for the day;

Full-30.5 cm.

Half-2 cm.

W/O Shell-13.7 cm.

Thanks,

The Cheery Cherry Blossoms

Hi Team.

Thanks for the photos and updates - it looks like your plants are growing well!  I see you've supported some with sticks so that's probably a really good idea - it will make sure they don't break as they grow.

Keep on growing!

Kate

Hey Kate,

These are the averages of the day;

Full-34.4 cm.

Half-1.7 cm.

W/O Shell-12 cm.

Thanks, 

The Cheery Cherry Blossoms

Hey Team.

Your journals are looking great and your graphs are amazing!  

I don't really know how long you should keep the experiment running - I really don't know how much these seeds will grow in these conditions!  But, there's not really any harm in keeping it running as long as you can to see if anything changes later.  Even if some of the full seeds start to die, you could keep the other sets growing for a while to see if they'll ever get to the same height if given more time.  I don't know if your teacher has a specific end date for the projects and a timeline to get your conclusions done, but if you can keep them growing a little longer, I'd say go for it!  Sometimes scientists get surprised!

I've been mentoring with Planting Science for many years and I've never had  students do an experiment like this before, so I can't even predict what will happen - maybe the half seeds will grow just as tall but take longer, or maybe they'll grow to a certain height and then die.  This is new for me too!

Thanks for all the updates and I'm looking forward to seeing what conclusions you come up with in the end.  It might also be a good time to start thinking about what kinds of changes you would make if you were to run this experiment again, using the experience you already have.

Kate

Hey Kate,

Hey are the averages for the day.

Full-38.3

Half-1.7

W/O Shell-12.9

Thanks,

The Cherry Cherry Blossoms

Hey Kate,

Thanks so much! We aren't to sure how long we will be keeping the experiment running but we will talk to our teacher about that for sure, but would like to know what you think about it also. We don't have time for averages today, because we have D.A.R.E, but we will update tomorrow! Thanks,

The Cherry Cherry Blossoms

Hey Team!

Your graph looks amazing!  Keep up the great work and I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out and what will happen to your half seeds if they're given more time.

How long can you keep your experiment running?

Kate