| Explore | Questions What do trees need to grow? Are seeds alive? How do trees grow? How many different species are there? Some plants are dangerous Nutrients from photosynthesis How much water do plants need to grow? How does an acorn turn into a tree? Do all plants come from seeds? How long do trees live? Can you grow any plant in your home? How does sap form? What type of soil is best for growing? Tyler: I don’t know much about plants. The only thing that I have ever planted was a Tulip in my small garden in my front yard. Last year we studied space and earth science, but this year we haven’t learned much about anything. Jossalyn: I don’t really know a lot about plants. But, I’ve planted a whole vegetable garden before. In class, we’ve only had a couple of discussions so far. Last year we studied space and earth science, and this year we are doing life science. Elena: I don't know much about plants but I have planted some vegetables before. We have had a few discussions about plants but mostly learned about space and earth science. I am looking forward to learning about life science this year. Avery: I don't know much about plants, but I do know that plants need water and sunlight. I always know that there are many different types of plants. We haven’t learned much about plant life in science class this year, or last year but I’m looking forward to learning more about it this year. |
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| Research Question | The question we chose to test is: How would freezing a seed affect plant growth? We got this question from our teachers suggestions. We chose to do this because to be honest we don't know much plants and it seemed like a fun experiment. |
| Predictions | We think that the thicker of an outer shell the seed has, the more successful it will be. The smaller and thinner the seeds are the longer it will take to germinate, or possibly not at all. |
| Experimental Design | For our experiment we will freeze seeds, and watch how their germination is affected. To conduct this experiment we will freeze three different types of seeds, including coriander, millet, and corn. We will also have seeds that won’t be frozen (our control group). Step 1: Freeze 12 seeds of each kind for 24 hours.Step 2: Plant 12 frozen seeds of each kind and 12 seeds of each kind that have not been frozen in small plastic pots (3 seeds per each pot). They should be planted to their desired planting depth, and will be watered depending on if the plants are moist.wet or dry and we will tess that with a water meter. But we will water them with 75ml. Step 3: Record their growth/how long their growth takes each day, compare between frozen and control group Step 4: Make a conclusion “Shopping” List: Seeds- Coriander, corn, millet Freezer- science lab Water-sink Soil 24 pots Sunlight- from the sun/plant light Beaker-in science class |
| Conclusion | Our prediction was partially supported. Our first hypothesis was that the control/not frozen seeds would grow better than the frozen seeds. This hypothesis was supported for the corn. Although the millet was Our claim was that freezing seeds would affect the speed of germination. We also thought the thinner the outer shell of the seed the harder it will take to grow because the outermost layer of the shell will have a thicker coat and will have a delayed growing time. Our plants all had different effects of when they were frozen depending on the size, and seed coat layer of them. Frozen Seeds: For our frozen seeds they had some decent growth and didn’t show much difference from the regular seeds. Our frozen seeds did grow but they didn't grow as fast as our frozen seeds did. Our frozen seeds had a difficult time growing at first since they sprouted after our control, But the average of all the frozen seed plants we planted was 17.6 centimeters. All of our frozen plants were pretty good growing beside our coriander which in the end had different plants growing so we couldn't really include this in our experiment. But other than that only one other corn plant was killed in our experiment but we used a pencil split to help save it so we could still use it in our experiment. Control seeds: Our control seeds all had a pretty equal and decent growth through the few weeks they had to grow. The only plant that didn’t germinate right away was our coriander which did grow at all for the first few days they had to grow. But everything was quite normal and we gave every single plant the exact same amount of water every other day. But they all had different heights; the average for our control plants was 18.9 centimeters for the 3 different seeds we used. In the end, our control seeds had better growth than our frozen seeds, and the average height difference between them is 1.3 centimeters. All of our control plants survived, besides our coriander which ended up not growing and got other plant seeds in the soil. So we decided to cut this out of our conclusion because the evidence is very factual. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Teacher Name | Rebecca Buzzell |
| School Name | Nottingham School |
| Session | Fall 2021 |