| Explore | We know that plants grow and develop and they give off oxygen we also know that they feed organisms and they reproduce by seeds or spores. One of our group members has a garden who plants and water the plants there. She knows how to plant the seed by making a short hole about one inch and then putting the seed in it and putting the dirt over it. In class and background research we have found that you can't plant two seeds right next to each other, we also found out that some seeds can be as small as a particle of dust well others can be one foot long, plants need sunlight, water, oxygen, and nutrients to grow, plants are made of eukaryotic cells, plant cells are different from animal cells because they have a cell wall and chloroplast |
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| Research Question | How does soil salinity effect seed germination? |
| Predictions | Our prediction is that plant #1 will grow the best because it contains no salt, #2 will grow a little worse than the #1 because it has 14.1 grams of salt, and lastly #3 will grow the worst because it has 28.3 grams of salt. |
| Experimental Design | The variables that we will test is how does soil salinity affect seed germination? The variables that we will measure and observe is how well the plant grows like how tall plant #2 and #3 is compared to plant #1 and how the plant #2 and #3 is compared to plant #1. The variables that we are going to keep constant is the salt in the soil because our experiment takes time. We are going to water the plants with the same amount of water at the same time, and they all will have the same amount of sunlight as well. We will record our data with our mentor and in our science journals we are going to record our data when there are changes in the plant. |
| Conclusion | My group of Libby, Hazel, Gianna, and I did an experiment to test the question, “How does soil salinity affect seed germination?” We tested how red and blue corn seeds react to different amounts of salt mixed into their soil. Our test pots were the blue seeds and our other pots were red seeds. We had three of each kind of seeds. Our #1 pots had no salt mixed in whatsoever, our #2 pots had 14.1 g of salt mixed in, and lastly, our #3 pots had 28.3 g of salt. Our results were interesting. In my hypothesis, I thought that #1 Pots would grow really well because it has no salt, #2 Pots would grow a bit worse because of the salt, and #3 Pots would grow the worst because it has the most amount of salt. I found out that yes, Pots 1 grew really well, but Pots 2 and 3 did not grow at all. Therefore, my hypothesis was incorrect. My data showed that red and blue corn seeds can not grow with 14.1 or more grams of salt. This is shown in my graph. In the end, The average height of the red and blue Pot #1s was 53.125 cm. The average height of red and blue Pot #2s was 0 cm. The average height of the red and blue Pot #3s was also 0 cm. I think all the Pot #2s and #3s didn’t grow because they had too much salt. These results do not support my prediction. Adding that much salt to the soil may have affected my results because if we had added less salt, the #2s and #3s may have survived. We should now repeat the experiment to test if the first one was correct because it could have been wrong. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | Middle School Students (grades 6,7,8) |
| School Name | Nottingham School |
| Session | Spring 2019 |
| About this Project | This team has been enthusiastic - even when faced with some setbacks, and have had great questions for their mentor. They have done a great job with plant care, measurements and communicating their findings. This team excelled at documenting qualitative and quantitative observations in their journals. This group was very conscientious about documenting their observations and put a lot of work into recording their data. They have also created graphs that are easy to read and they've come up with reasons for why some of their plants didn't grow. |