Team - great PPT presentation!  I especially liked the last slide Glad I could help a little!  Also be sure to thank your teacher; you are lucky to have a great teacher like Ms. Buzzell - she's the best!

My introductory college biology students are doing similar research projects now.  I hope that their work is as good as yours!

Great work and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Steve

Super job Team!!!  I'm very impressed with the excellent work you've done.  You should be proud.  I'm happy to have been a part of your team.  Steve

Farewell and Best Wishes

As this research project is now in the final stages of wrapping-up, we wish to thank everyone who participated in this inquiry; the students, mentors, teachers and others behind the scenes. We appreciate all of your efforts and contributions to this online learning community.

Scientific exploration is a process of discovery that can be fun! There are many unanswered questions about plants just waiting for new scientists to consider, investigate, and share.

After the end of the session, we will be updating the platform and archiving groups and projects, after which time new updates/posts will not be able to be added to projects or groups. You have until Friday, November 19, 2021, to post ALL of your updates, comments, and goodbyes. Please come back and visit the PlantingScience Project Gallery anytime to view this project in the future. You can search the Gallery by keyword, team name, topic, or school name.

Good bye for now.

Warm regards,

The PlantingScience Team

Hi All!  You've been busy again!  Nice job.  Your conclusions are coming along great.  It looks like you are nearly finished.  I like the way you basically have separate sections in the conclusions for the data including sections on: (a) how salt affects height of seedlings, (b) how salt affect whether the seeds are happy (i.e., growing upright and looking healthy), (c) how salt affects seed germination.  So, what overall conclusion can you make?  Can the seedlings tolerate any salt?  how much is too much?  Is this amount what you would expect in the ocean, or even on a roadside after winter salting?  I'm impressed with your work.  You should be proud.  Steve

Hi Dr.Steve

       Thank you for being over mentor and helping us in this experiment and we will be adding a presentation next week.

Anthony and crew

Hi Team.  Wow.  I'm impressed. Nice work with your data analysis and journals.  You've done a terrific job plotting and revising your graphs.  Looks like you have some obvious conclusions.  Keep up the great work.  Steve

Hi Team.  You've been busy!  Your graphs look great.  Here are a few suggestions:

Graph - looks great.  I would personally leave off the values for the data points since this makes the graph look a little cluttered.  This is a personal choice.  Otherwise, it looks great.  What can you conclude from this graph?  

Graph 1 - This one is pretty though I don't understand why there are only seeds germinated on the last day for the green treatment.  I think an even better graph would be to plot % germination on the Y axis and treatment / salt conc on the X axis.  

Graph 2 - I'd plot the same kind of summary graph as above.  Although i love the term "happy seeds" you will want to define what you mean, or use a better term.  

Graph 3 - looks great.  It would be helpful if you could label the treatments under the bars on the X axis.

Now, what can you conclude from all of this wonderful data?

hope you had a great Halloween weekend.  Steve

Hi Everyone,

You have been working hard with documenting your experiments, so please make sure that your most recent journal has been uploaded to your Planting Science Files tab. The file name cannot contain your last name, and it needs to be downloaded as a pdf. Please do not attach Google docs!!

Hi Dr. Saupe, 

We have completed our data collection and are working on our graphs. I will upload all of mine. 

Cadence

Hi Planting Protagonists,

Please let your mentor know that you have completed collecting data and make sure you post your graphs and go to this Planting Science resource page . Your group needs to answer all these questions - in writing. Post your answers here on the blog so your mentor can give you feedback. 

Looks like you've gotten some cool results that support your hypothesis.  Happy Halloween

Hi Team.  sounds great.  You have lots of great data and should be able to make some good conclusions.   You have lots of analyzing you can do (see my previous note).  I'm looking forward to seeing your results.  all the best, Steve  

Also, I forgot to add that we are doing our final measurements today

-Owen

Hi Steve, we are doing our final experiments and are wrapping up the experiment most of our plants are almost dead only the 2 0g are nice and healthy plus they are standing up straight

Yours Truly - Owen+Group

Great question.  If they are about to die, it is probably time to think about ending the experiment.  Perhaps take your final measurements today and then end it for all seedlings.  Also, it would be good to take data on appearance of seedlings and number upright vs lying down as we discussed.  

Hi. Dr.Steve

Most of the plants have fallen over and we don't know if we should measure the ones lying on the soil. Those plants don't look healthy and we think they will die soon. 

Anthony and crew

Hi.  no worries.  It would have been a little harder to explain otherwise :-)  great data.  hope your final analysis is going well.  Steve

Hello Dr. Saupe,

I realized that I accidentally typed 12 instead of 10. Sorry about that.

Cadence

Hi Again.  one interesting thing I noticed is that in the 5 g salt germination treatment you had 12 seedlings but only put in 10.  How do you explain that result?  :-)  all the best, Steve

Hi Team.  It was great to meet you and Shan this morning and have an opportunity to chat.  I enjoyed it very much.

I like the journals and images you've uploaded.  Great work.  

As we discussed, other observations you might want to quantify are (a) the number/percent of plants growing upright and not wilted; (b) final weight of one seedling in each treatment.  

Possible graphs you can make are:  % seed germination (y axis) vs. salt concentration (x axis); average plant height (y axis) vs. salt concentration; average seedling weight at conclusion (y axis) vs salt conc; % plants growing upright (y axis) vs. salt concentration. 

To calculate an average:  divide number by the total then multiply by 100.  Say for seed germination, if 10 germinated and you planted 10 then percent germination equals 10/10 x 100 = 100%.

lot's of fun data to analyze.  all the best, Steve 

Thank you for showing up and coming to the meeting today. Also thank you for all the suggestions.

Sincerely, -Owen

Hi Team.

 Just a friendly reminder that you will have a zoom meeting with Dr. Saupe at 10:10am today. You will be using the same zoom link for the meeting. 

Thanks,
Shan 

Hi Team.  wow, you've been busy!  Lots of great data.  Now it's time to analyze it.  Perhaps we can chat about that tomorrow, so i won't say much now.  You can certainly plant the seedlings from your germination expt though as long as you have enough growing in your treatments there is probably not a need to do so.  

So, can you tell if your treatment had/has an effect on seed germination or seedling growth?

Talk soon.  Steve

Hi Dr. Steve,

Mrs. Buzzell and all of us are wondering if we should plant the seeds from the germination experiment or not. 

Sorry for not sending you this before but here is my science journal so far. 

10/08/2021-We planted seeds and created the salt solutions. 

10/13/2021- Some of the seeds have started to sprout. We just added 25 mL of normal water with no salt today. 

-0g A- Very dry, no seeds sprouted. It is a possibility that we forgot to initially water the plant or the soil just didn’t soak up the water and it evaporated.

-0g B- Much more wet than the other control, but no seeds have sprouted in this container either. 

-5g A- Ben is doing this experiment at home 

-5g B- Ben is doing this experiment at home. 

-10g A- Wet, no seeds sprouted 

-10g B- Wet, 3 out of 10 seeds sprouted 

-15g A- Wet, 2 out of 10 seeds sprouted 

-15g B- Wet, none sprouted

-20g A- Wet, 7 out of ten seeds sprouted

-20g B- Wet, 4 out of ten seeds sprouted

10/14/2021- Quite a few of the plants have sprouted. We watered them with 25 mL of normal water. We added 200 mL of extra water to 0g A because we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t watered on the first day.

10/18/21- We started the salt portion of the experiment. We will also start our measurements today.  All plants are currently that same color.

10/19/2021- We took the heights of the plants and some of the plants and some of the plants were drooping. We worked on the germination experiment

Plant condition for in pot plants

Average Height for pot plants 

Germination experiment # sprouted 

The blank spots were where we ran out of time. 

Hi Team.  Were we supposed to Zoom this AM?  I was logged in for about 20 minutes.  If you are still interested in Zooming, we can try to schedule again.  I am available next week, MWF at 10:10.  all the best, Steve

Hi Team, 

One of you needs to upload their journal and data table so Steve can see your progress. Uploading photos will help, too. You can login to Planting Science on your phone to upload your photos or see me and I can help you. Please make sure this is posted Thursday!

Hi Team! I am not seeing any posts to your mentor on this blog since Cadence posted the experimental design on 10/7. If you are not posting regularly, your mentor has no idea what is happening with your project! Please make sure you are posting here 2-3 times a week (take turns) - you can copy/paste the entries that you made in your journals. It would be really helpful if your mentor could see your data table, the observations you've made so far, and some photos would be very helpful as well. Make sure that you are uploading jpg files - if you use an iPhone, you have to turn off the Live option because the HEIC files do not seem to be compatible with the website. Add the photos using the File tab in the left side bar. See me if you need help!

Keep up the good work!

Hi Teams!

It's great to see plants growing! Hopefully all groups will see some growth by Monday. A few things to keep in mind:

Water - you may need to adjust the amount! If you have 100 mL daily written in your experimental design, but your plants are sitting in soil soup, it's ok to record the observation that they don't need that much water, and adjust the amount / frequency of watering (unless amount of water is your independent variable). 

Recording data: 

Data tables are great for organizing data! Add your unit of measurement to the heading of each column - and just record numbers on your table. It's a good idea to include 0's to show no growth so it is clear that nothing grew.

Keep up the great work and keep asking questions!

When averaging your plant heights, don't forget to divide by the total number of plants in the pot. If you notice that most of your plants are an average of 2 cm tall, but one group stands out at 16 cm, check to see if it really is that much larger. 

Make sure you are giving other group members a chance to measure and discuss your observations to see if anyone notices differences you may have missed.

Hi Everyone! 

We have groups that have started planting today! Very exciting!! Some groups have questions because we are not in school after today until 10/13, so that will affect plants that are getting a reduced amount of light and it may affect some groups watering schedules.

I hope to have photos of projects added soon, and the students are starting their science journals today!

Students are also very excited about upcoming Zooms with mentors. 

Keep up the good work!

Hi Team, 

Your plan is lacking a few details - how many seeds per pot? How to set this up? How to plant the seeds? How are you mixing the salt/water? What are you storing it in?

Also - upload to section above - even if it needs editing still!

What you think about this 

Materials

-200 cress seeds 

-5 cups of soil 

-5 Liters of water

-50 grams of salt 

-5 Paper Towels

-5 petri dishes 

-5 water container- Soda bottles?

-5 graduated cylinders 

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

1. Put soil in containers  

2. mix water

3. Put 200 ml of water in soil

4. Soak paper towels  in water 

5. Place paper towels in petri dishes

6. Plant seeds in soil 

7. Put some seeds in petri dishes

8. Add 25-50 ml of water weekly depending soil wetness and measure

Hi Dr. Saupe,

We were talking to Mrs. Buzzell she said the we should use ppt.  I googled it and it said that one mL equals one gram.  So were thinking for the ppt that we could do grams of salt to a L of water because it would take 1000 grams of salt to reach 1 Liter of water.  We we thinking of doing 20 grams, 15, grams, 10 grams, 5 grams and 0 grams of salt for our amounts.  Each of those mixed in to 1 L of water. Do you think those would be good measurements to use. To make sure that all the measurements stayed the same we would premix them in a container. 

     Cadence and group

Hi Team! 

Dr. Steve has some great recommendations! We live near the Great Bay estuary - where salt water from the bay meets and mixes with fresh river water. If you look around Great Bay, you'll notice plants growing up to the water's edge. Here's a link to the Great Bay Estuarine Reserve (where I did an internship many years ago) https://www.greatbay.org/60137-2/ that has information on the range of normal salinity in the bay. This might help you with deciding how much salt to use! 

I am hoping to see your experimental design posted tomorrow!

Hi All.  just checking in.  Your research questions looks great.  We usually like to express predictions as IF...Then statements.  IF salt affects the growth rate, THEN plants treated with salt will be shorter and grow more slowly than controls.  IF salt affects germination, THEN. . . and so on.  

One thing you might want to do now is to figure out HOW MUCH salt should be in your treatment.  For example, how much is in salt water ocean?  That would be by far the max, and it would be best to be even less.  What about salt along roads - how much in the soil, etc?  

lots of cool things to think about.   all the best, Steve

Dr. Steve

Today we are going to write out our research question and predictions.  Then we will write out our experimental design if we have time. If we do can you tell us if it is any good?

Anthony and Crew 

Hi All.  Sounds great and it looks like you will soon be collecting data which is the fun part. Looking forward to hearing more. All the best. Steve

Hi Dr. Saupe, 

We are starting to work on our final research question and our predictions. We think the germination part is a great idea and we should go ahead with both (if you agree.) Mrs. Buzzel said that she could give us twenty seeds to work with because not many people are doing Cress.  We think that they way you have the measurments should work perfectly. 

Cadence and Group

Hi team, 

How’s the planning for your experiment? Please make sure to share your ideas and communicate with your mentor, so your mentor could provide feedback for your experimental design. 

Thank you very much.

Shan

Hi Cadence and Group....I like the way you've reformatted your question.  This should be easily measurable.  As an aside, if you germinate the seeds in salt, that would be an additional question - does salt affect cress seed germination.

So, how will you measure each?  For % seed germination = # seeds that germinate/total seeds x 100.  Try to use at least 10 seeds in each treatment.  more seeds is better.  For growth rate, measure height of plant from soil or root daily or every other day.  then graph height vs. days.  For growth rate, you will determine the slope of the initial stages of the graph.  

Looks like you're going to be having lots of scientific fun. 

all the best, Steve

Hello,

Sorry about not responding earlier, Mrs. Buzzell has been absent and we had guidance yesterday during science.  We agree about restating the question. We like your idea for the question being does salt affect the growth rate and height of a plant. We think that Cress would be a good plant to use because of the fast results. 

Cadence and Group

Hi Team!

As groups start to choose their research question, many students are wondering what seeds to use.

Millet, Corn and Ryegrass are types of grasses. You can find information about grasses here (the top 2-3 paragraphs have some interesting information) 

We have coriander seeds - they are in the carrot family!

Buckwheat is in the brassicaceae family - read this to find out what growing conditions it prefers!

Once you have decided what your research question is, do some research to see what conditions your chosen plants do best in - this will help you when you are analyzing your data. For example - buckwheat does not grow well in shade. This is important to know if you are testing different light sources!

Hi.  The first question is great. If interested in growth, then you will likelywant to restate your question to something like, Does salt affect the growth rate and height of X plant?  Now, you will know what you plan to measure (i.e., height).  You can also consider the effect of salt on all sorts of other things including, leaf area, leaf length, leaf number, and so on, and then include in your question?  Have you read anything about what might be affected by salt?

 As for the species, any available would work fine.  Cress should grow quickly for fast results.  

Looking forward to learning more.  all the best, Steve

Hi Dr. Steve, 

        We are interested in continuing with the first question about salt. By handle we mean withstand and survive. We are definitely more interested in how it affects the growth of plants. As for the plant species, we are wondering if you have any suggestions. 

                    -Anthony and Crew

Hi Owen & Crew . . . Your chromatography came out great.  11 bands is really good separation.  I assume that the biggest band you saw was chlorophyll a.  

I like both of your questions, though they need to be a little more specific.  For example, in Q1 what do you mean by handle?  Perhaps you could clarify, Does salt inhibit (or stimulate) seed germination?  Or, how does affect the growth (height, # of leaves, root length, or whatever)?  Now, we should also specify plant species.  Does salt inhibit, say cress, germination?

Similarly for Q2, which species, which environmental factor, and which pigments?  Also, be sure you have a biological rationale for the question.  For example, chlorophyll has a lot of nitrogen, so perhaps you could ask, How does soil nitrogen affect chlorophyll amount?  

So, overall, your questions are a great start with interesting ideas and possibilities.  Now time to revise slightly to make them more specific and easier to test.  

all the best, Steve

Hello Dr. Saupe,

    How are you doing? During the leaf chromatography lesson, we found 11 bands of color although the colors did repeat sometimes. The biggest band of color is between a light green and a yellowish-brownish-green. We used acetone as a solvent during the experiment.  

    We are trying to come up with a testable research question. We have come up with two so far and are wondering your opinion. The first one is how much salt (in water) can a plant handle. The second is how would the chromatography be changed if we changed the water, soil, or light. We are especially interested in water. -Owen :)  (and group)

9/23 

Hi Team!

Some teams have narrowed down their questions and presented them to their mentors. By the end of class today, your group needs to have 2-3 testable questions. Ask your mentor what they think would be doable in a classroom setting. We have potting soil, pots, petri dishes, plastic baggies, pipettes, a pH tester or two, possible access to black lights. Some Grow lights are available, I have regular 40 or 60 watt light bulbs. If you need something, ask me and I can check to see what I've got.

If you want something special, like different colored light bulbs, you may need to bring those in from home, so check with parents before deciding to test something that I don't have supplies for.

All groups should check in today to assess progress.

Hi Teams! 

Today you want to be focusing on coming up with ideas that relate to the real world that you might be able to test. 

For example, in B block, we talked about the drought that is devastating California farms.  Some questions that came out of this discussion included: 

• How much water do plants need to grow?
• Do all plants need the same amount of water?
• What seeds/plants grow the best with very little water?
• CA is near the Pacific ocean - can plants tolerate some salt in the water and still grow?

Other external factors you might want to consider are light, temperature, or space needed for plants to grow. 

What are some real world problems involving plants that you can think of? Once you have a list of problems, see what your group can think of for creative solutions and write those down.

Your goal is to come up with an interesting problem to solve and a way to test your idea. Once you talk over your ideas with your mentor and decide on a an interesting question, you can move on to the next step - formulate a hypothesis (with an explanation of why you think it will work) and after you have a written plan for your experimental design, it will be time to plant!!

Hi Team!

As you start thinking about testable questions, remember that we are going to be focusing on seed germination / plant growth. 

As a class, we talked about what makes seeds sprout and what plants need. Here are some ideas and questions that we talked about:

How much water is needed for plants to grow?

Do different plants need different amounts of water?

What temperature will be best for plant growth? 

Do seeds need light to sprout?

Plants need warm weather, water and sun to grow.

Can we grow plants without soil?

Seeds aren't dead - they are dormant and need to have the right conditions to grow.

These are just a few of the ideas and questions that each class came up with. 

A few students and mentors have asked what seeds we have available to work with:

Rye Grass, Pearl Millet, Corn, Cress, Buckwheat, and Coriander

Also, just a heads up that we have NWEA testing next Monday and Tuesday, and Mrs. Wheeler is coming in for a guidance lesson Wednesday, so we have a different schedule and may not be able to check in with Mentors on those days. 

Groups should be sharing their ideas for testable questions with their mentors. Ideally, you will have a testable question and hypothesis by the end of the week, and then you can start working on your experimental design.

Keep up the good work!

Hi....leaf chromatography is super cool.  I'm impressed what you are learning.  How many color bands did you see?  Do you know which pigments they are associated with?  Which band is largest (i.e., largest amount of pigment)?  What solvent system did you use - which tells you something about the solubility of the pigments.  I wonder what would happen if you used one of your favorite plants - like rosemary or cactus - would they have the same pigments?  all sorts of cool questions.  Keep me posted.  all the best, Steve

Hi nice to meet you Dr. Saupe, my group and I would like to let you know that we are doing a leaf chromatography lab today in class. 

Hi Planting Protagonists.  Great to meet you.  By way of introduction, I teach in the joint Biology Department of the College of St. Benedict and Saint John's University in central Minnesota.  I am a broadly trained botany nerd and love everything about plants.  I am one of the leaders of our maple syrup operation on campus and spend a lot of time studying the process and production of syrup.  You might say I'm a really sweet guy.  Sorry, bad pun.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to working with you this session.  Feel free to call me Steve, Dr. Saupe, Mr. Saupe, Dr. Steve or whatever is most comfortable to you. 

I like your group image . . . nice touch!   looking forward to beginning.  all the best, Steve

9/17 Happy Friday, Everyone!

Today all groups should be finalizing a team name (plant related, puns encouraged!) and adding to your webpage. You can also upload a plant related icon (just one - agree on it before posting!) and we will add a team picture later once I have the list of who is allowed to post photos.

Once this is done, open your Google doc that you started yesterday and revise your Explore statement. Proofread it and have one group member edit the Explore section above. Remember that only one person can edit at a time!

Next, check to see if your mentor has responded to your group and answer any questions they may ask.

Your team can start brainstorming a list of questions - focus on germination or plant growth. You will be choosing one to research, so you can share the list on your group updates so your mentor can see what you are thinking about. They may give you some ideas, too.

Also, I will be posting a compilation of what all three classes came up with for questions and things they know about plants. The question about why do plants have different shaped leaves was great - I have some photos I took of different leaves that I will post, too!

Hi everyone. Welcome to a new session of PlantingScience! I am the liaison for this group, Shan Wong. My role is to facilitate the conversation between this group of students and your mentors when it is needed. A bit about myself, I am a PhD student at Texas Tech University. My PhD research was about the orchid mycorrhizae (the interaction between orchid mycorrhizal fungi and Vanilla species). I am looking forward to working with you all.

Hello Mentor, how should we address you?

Welcome to your PlantingScience project page!

Welcome to this community of plant researchers. As your team plans and conducts your own research project, you will be mentored by a scientist. The mentor's role is to encourage and guide you through the process of scientific discovery. The more you share your ideas and research information online, the more your mentor can help. You can also find out more about your mentor. What is their research about? Why did they go into science? What do they like to do when they are not working?

You may also hear from this classroom’s assigned scientist liaison. Liaisons work with several mentors and help make sure the conversations are going strong. They may also offer some extra advice or encouragement.

Two resources can help you get started:

• Student Roadmap
• Plant Investigation Toolkit

Best wishes as you start this scientific journey. We are all pleased to share this experience with you. Have fun!

To set up your project page:

• Choose your project team name. Need inspiration? Visit the project gallery to see other student teams.
• Upload a photo or avatar for your team.
• Introduce yourselves to your scientist mentor and get the conversation started!
• PLEASE ONLY CLICK "Share with team" ONCE. Sometimes the page takes a little while to refresh, so please be patient!
• In order to protect student privacy, please DO NOT share:
  • last names
  • social media handles
  • links to Google/Sharepoint documents, spreadsheets, or images
• We will remove these items as we find them in posts.