Planting Science - Projects: The BumbleBees
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The BumbleBees

Project by group nebuzzellspring2018

Explore We know that in order to grow plants need food/sunlight, water, and a growth chamber or soil. Some of us have gardens or indoor potted plants at home and we know that the plants growing in the outside garden have grown and are different from the inside plants. Some of the outdoor plants won't make it because of the natural disasters and tough conditions whereas the indoor plants will usually make it to its full lifespan unless something else happens. We have learned in class and background research that plants reproduce asexually and do not have sperm and an egg cell. Can plants grow in such harsh environments where they have to mutate into something that can survive that condition? What does it take for a plant to mutate: pollution, weather conditions, etc.
Research Question How will alfalfa seeds germinate and grow when the PH levels in the water are higher than usual due to pollution.
Predictions The plants that will be put in a polluted environment or where the ph levels in the water are high might not grow or germinate as well as the plants in the normal controlled environment. The plants in the polluted environment might also mutate or deform from the amount of acid in the water.
Experimental Design For this experiment, you have two groups, the experimental group, and the control group. Each cup will have three inches of soil with the alfalfa seeds one inch deep in the soil. You need twenty alfalfa seeds and ten solo cups making two seeds per cup. Five solo cups will have ten seeds and that will be the control group. The control group will have normal water. The experimental group instead of water will use lemon juice or citric acid. The lemon juice will cancel out the water from a 6 to a 4. This will lower the pH level from 6 to 4. This should represent how pollution affects the growth and germination of alfalfa seeds. Water all ten cups with four teaspoons of water or lemon juice depending on what group you are working on. Since there are no holes in the cups water them until the soil seems dry. Label your cups experimental and control, an example experimental, cup 1, seeds one and two.
Conclusion Prediction: The plants that will be put in a polluted environment or where the pH levels in the water are high might not grow or germinate as well as the plants in the normal controlled environment. The plants in the polluted environment might also mutate or deform from the amount of acid in the water. Conclusion: The experimental group grew better than the control. The control had the tallest plant of 8.1 cm but the experimental had the better average by 2.08 cm. The experimental average was 4.56 cm while the control average was 2.48 cm. The smallest plant (besides the ones that didn’t grow) was in the experimental and it was 3.1 cm. The reason the control average went down was that two plants died; one plant was 4.8 cm and the other was 5.9 cm. However, in the experimental group, no plants died, but three of them never started to grow. If we were to do this project again we would try to stretch the pH to 3. We knew that the preferred was 4-8 so we tried to lowest but we could have tried 3. In our experiment, the lower pH levels in the comfort zone are better than the normal pH levels.
Investigation Theme WOS
Grade Level Middle School Students (grades 6,7,8)
School Name Nottingham Elementary
Session Spring 2018

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NSF_Logo.jpg This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #2010556 and #1502892. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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