sffsporterspring2019 project 6
- Project reviewer
Joined 12 Feb 2019
Project by group sffsporterspring2019
Info
| Explore |
Work on this next! What do we know about plants from our experiences outside of school? What have we discovered in class and background research? What questions about plants interest us? |
|---|---|
| Research Question | If the quality of the water changes, will it affect the rate of germination? |
| Predictions | If we Change the quality of water we give to 5 different Petri dishes of Ryegrass, then I think the Ryegrass will do best in the Petri dish with pure water (ph=7) or black coffee (ph=5)because Ryegrass is best in a ph of 5.5 to 7.5 water/soil |
| Experimental Design | Soak 50 ryegrass seeds overnight Lable 5 Petri dishes with numbers 1-5. Put 2 layers of circled shape paper napkins in the petri dish. Put ten ryegrass seeds into each Petri dish and make sure that they are spread out and can’t get under the paper towels DO NOT WATER THEM YET. Only spray... |
| Conclusion | What claim can we make from our experiment? What are possible explanations for our results? How do the data we collected and our reasoning with scientific ideas support our claim? What future experiments could be done to expand on the results of this experiment? |
| About this Project |
The team's focus and dedication to their project made this project stand out. The team members demonstrated initiative and responsibility for their work. They communicated frequently with their mentor who gave them an immense amount of support on their project. This team had a great rapport... |
Updates
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. 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
It’s great to see that teams from your school are wrapping up and posting conclusions. Enjoy the final stages of your project, and feel free to post any final comments or questions you have for your mentors.
Toby, Kai, and Jaxon,
Thanks for being such great scientists and letting me join in your project. I hope you all learned some cool things and are excited to learn more about the natural world! Good luck in the rest of your school year:)
Mason
Like we predicted the coffee and the water were the best Petri dishes out of all of them, in fact they were the only Petri dishes that started to germinate. Out of these two Petri dishes water probably did the best because in trial one the radicals of the Petri dish with coffee just stopped growing after a 2-3 mm. A quantitative observation that surprised was that on day 5, trial 3 some of the radicals in the coffee petri dish were 20-45 mm. A Qualitative observation I made on day 1 of trial 1 was that some old the seeds broke out of there seed coats.
Hi Mason,
at the end of this experiment the most successful trial was trial 3 because the coffee grew. thank you so much for helping us the tips you gave us was great. and the link of what will happen if you spilled soda on plants helped me. Thank you Mason.
sincerely Kai
whoops
Our experimental question was, if the quality of the water changes, will it affect the rate of germination? Our hypothesis for the question was If we change the quality of water we give to 5 different Petri dishes of ryegrass, then the ryegrass will do best in the Petri dish with pure water or black coffee because Ryegrass is best in a ph of 5.5 to 7.5 water/soil. Our data supported our hypothesis. One example of qualitative data that supported our hypothesis is we had was, in every trial except number two we had the coffee germinate first. This anomaly may be the result of me not watering the right liquid into coffee. This makes me think since the liquid I watered the seeds with was soap then soap must be really terrible for plants. One example of quantitative data we had was that water and coffee in trial two and three were germinated by the second day. Overall this was a great experiment that tested organization and strengthened teamwork. I wish to have more labs like it.
Our experimental question was, if the quality of the water changes, will it affect the rate of germination? Our hypothesis for the question was If we change the quality of water we give to 5 different Petri dishes of ryegrass, then the ryegrass will do best in the Petri dish with pure water or black coffee because Ryegrass is best in a ph of 5.5 to 7.5 water/soil. Our data supported our hypothesis. One example of qualitative data that supported our hypothesis is we had was, in every trial except number two we had the coffee germinate first. This anomaly may be the result of me not watering the right liquid into coffee. This makes me think since the liquid I watered the seeds with was soap then soap must be really terrible for plants. One example of quantitative data we had was that water and coffee in trial two and three were germinated by the second day. Overall this was a great experiment that tested organization and strengthened teamwork. I wish to have more labs like it.
Our experimental question was, if the quality of the water changes, will it affect the rate of germination? Our hypothesis for the question was If we change the quality of water we give to 5 different Petri dishes of ryegrass, then the ryegrass will do best in the Petri dish with pure water or black coffee because Ryegrass is best in a ph of 5.5 to 7.5 water/soil. Our data supported our hypothesis. One example of qualitative data that supported our hypothesis is we had was, in every trial except number two we had the coffee germinate first. This anomaly may be the result of me not watering the right liquid into coffee. This makes me think since the liquid I watered the seeds with was soap then soap must be really terrible for plants. One example of quantitative data we had was that water and coffee in trial two and three were germinated by the second day. Overall this was a great experiment that tested organization and strengthened teamwork. I am happy that we had a mentor like you to help us through it.
Here's the spreadsheet if you choose to use it. It's already labeled with everything. Also let me know if you'd like help making a graph.
Hey team,
It sounds like you guys are wrapping up your report and getting pretty interesting results. While coffee treatment seems to decrease germination, the difference in trials is definitely something to talk about!
As you guys start coming to conclusions and discussing the reason for your results I'd like you guys to consider making a graph of your data. Quantitative figures are the backbone to science communication and would really strengthen your results. I've attached a spreadsheet you guys can fill out with your data. If you need help making a graph, you can send the spreadsheet back to me filled out and I can make a graph from it. Let me know if this is something you guys would like to do.
As usual keep up the observations/measurements/pictures:) Good job everyone!
Hi Mason,
today in class we looked at our trial 3 coffee and it is growing a lot. so far in the other trials coffee hasn't grown one bit.
Kai
Hi Kai,
Nice pictures. It sounds like pH is a huge limiting factor in germination. I wonder does caffeine affect germination too? I wonder why the other trials haven't germinated compared to trial 3? Interesting things to think about, and consider writing about as you guys wrap up your report:)
Hi Mason,
I just updated the project!
Today was the 2nd day of trial 2 and the 1st day of trial 3. Something interesting that we noticed was that only trial 3 seeds sprouted and none of trial 2! We do not have an eplanation for this because we tried to greet the different trials the same way. In trial 3 about 16ish have sprouted there radicals, 10 of which are just plain water. I predicted like trial 1 the coffe sill stop growing after about the length of 7ish mm. Do we write the conclusion after all our trials or is it like another prediction?
-Toby
- Why do you think you got your results (sounds like pH is a huge factor but why does pH/coffee affect those particular seeds?).
- What other factors did you possibly overlook? (caffeine in coffee, temperature, amount of liquid, light, etc.)
- What would be a good future experiment now that you know the effect of coffee on seeds (for example: mechanisms of how pH reduces germination, comparing the effect of pH on different types of seed, etc.)?
Hey Toby,
Nice joke earlier, I tried to make a pun in my response but don't know if I was successful lol.
Thank's for updating the info:) and that's great you're doing multiple trials. More trials = more confidence in results! That's curious that you trial 2 seeds aren't germinating but if the control treatment (I'm guessing water is the control?) aren't germinating either then you could speculate that those particular seeds were affected by a possible external factor that you didn't account for (those seeds are duds, they were exposed to unfavorable temperature, etc.).
Lastly, now that you're wrapping up your project you can start to make conclusions and discuss why you got the results you got. Here's what you should talk about...
Sorry for the long response, but hopefully all this info helps you guys write up a nice report.
OH I forgot to mention, in your discussion, it is very important to discuss why your results matter! What does this mean for people who grow ryegrass? Why is pH important for plants in general?
Good luck!
Also, Emily, the mentor for project 5 made a good point. If possible, it'd be good to have a ruler in your pictures to let other people looking at it know how long the radicles are. And if you haven't already, measuring the pH to get quantitative numbers would be really good to help convince people reading your paper that the pH of the different liquids was actually different. Great job guys!
ok we'll start to take the pictures with a ruler next to it. Have you seen my joke (look down)
( ;
Hey Mason!
Today is one of the last days we have working on our trial number one and our data is really interesting. For the first couple of days, we had no growth in any of the five Petri dishes including water. But as the experiment progressed we started to seed radicles poking out of most of the seeds. The petri dish with water in it grew about five times its original size! Something that I realize is that with the coffee the seeds actually germinated but within two days of its germination every seed turned brown and died I was curious why this may be.
Hey guys,
I'm glad everything is going well. It sounds like you're all working hard. Feel free to post your experimental design, predictions, and final results if you need help discussing them and have questions regarding any of these topics.
Hi Mason
(read nest two lines out loud)
Why are you the best mentor? Because your A-MASON’
We predicted that the coffee and the plain water will grow the best because I read somewhere that ryegrass should grow the best in a ph of 5.5-7.5 soil, and since we’re not planting the seeds in soil I thought we could use this information for the ph of the water. Coffee and water are approximately 5.5mm-7.5. As I said yesterday when we checked in on the water petri dish it grew so much! The radicles in this petri dish was at least 5 cm! Maybe next time we will add more water to the coffee so it is more neutral and have more interesting results in the coffee petri dish.
Hey Toby,
Thanks! I'm trying toby the best possible mentor I can:) I'm glad to hear that things are going smoothly. It's okay that you didn't water over the weekend, that's just a limitation you need to write out in your methods section.
It's kinda nice when your hypotheses are correct, because they make the most sense. However, sometimes it's even more fun when your hypothesis isn't supported and you have to work out why it isn't correct. In this case, it looks like pH is a big limiting factor in ryegrass germination. I wonder, is the coffee pH lower that causes it to not germinate the seeds as much when compared to water?
I'm glad you guys are taking pictures and documenting everything. It's so important in science!
Hi Mason,
here are some pictures of our experiment so far
Kai
Hey Kai,
They look great. In my opinion, pictures are one of the most important parts of a scientific project because they help communicate your ideas to other people the best. Are the day 1 and day 2 pictures switched? If so, it looks like water and coffee are doing the best at germinating the seeds compared to the others. I wonder why that might be the case?
Hi mason
Today we just finished our 4th day of our expierement and unfortunately we did not have a plan for watering the plants on the weekend, so they were quite dry when we checked on them.
The petri dish with water probably germinated the most. The radicles of these seeds were probably 7mm!
-Toby
Hey guys,
It sounds like you guys got your experiment up and running. I'm excited to see how these different liquids affect germination and growth of ryegrass:)
Here's a few tips that helped me when I first started running my own experiments that you might find helpful...
- Record everything! write down what you did even if it seems insignificant because it may have been caused by that certain thing overlooked. It will make writing your materials and methods section way easier.
- Take pictures! When people want to know what you did, they almost always get most excited by the pictures. It also helps them visualize what happened during your experiment.
- Make sure all your variables remain consistent. For example, same amount of liquid for each plant.
- Start thinking about why certain variables may increase or decrease germination/growth rate. Having a few hypotheses really helps with this.
- And of course have fun:) Your experiment might finding something new and that's incredibly exciting and one of the best things about science.
Hi Mason
today we did our first test. the seeds that we choose is ryegrass. we got everything prepared and 30 min later we watered them. we sprayed coffee, regular water, vinegar, salt water, and soapy water. Toby and Jaxon will see the out come tommorrow because I have a doctors appointment.
Right on Kai! Thanks for keeping me updated. Sounds like things are going well. I'll post a few tips you guys might find helpful during this process.
Hi Mason,
i read the article that cleared a lot of questions that i was going to ask you. what will happen if we substitute vinegar for lemon. will the effects be the same or different?
Hey Kai,
It sounds like you guys want to test the effect of different pH liquids on seed germination or seedling growth? I'm not sure the difference between vinegar or lemon but that could be something to think about testing. I think they are both fairly acidic but they have different nutrients other things in them that might interact differently with the seed.
Hi Mason,
Over the weekend I accidentally spilled sparkling water on the plants and this morning the leaves fell of even though the plant was healthy. do you know what might have happened?
Hey Kai,
That's interesting, and I must say, you have me stumped as to why that happened. As you might know sparkling water is slightly acidic due to the extra carbonation that makes it fizzy. I wonder how acidic the water has to be to affect the plants? It may have got too much sun or too much water as well. The nice thing about an experiment is that you can get down to the root cause (pun intended) as to why this may have happened. Very interesting, and great question.
Here's a short article that tested sparkling water effects on a plant.
https://sciencing.com/happens-water-plants-soda-6300916.html
*off
Hi Mason,
We wanted to test out a question from science and I had to come up with the dependent variable would be and I figured it would probably be the plant growth. A fact I learned today was that monocot plants usually have a fibrous root system and dicots usually have a taproot.
-Toby
Hey Toby,
Ding ding, you are correct. Dependent variables are the things that you expect to change and will measure. So plant growth is a very common dependent variable to measure. BUT, how would you measure plant growth? Plant height? Leaf area growth? Root mass? This is something you guys will have to decide.
When you guys figure out what your independent variable (The variable you will be changing for each seed group) let me know and I can help you guys figure out how to set up an experimental design. Kai mentioned pH and salt levels? That'd be very cool and easy to apply to your seed groups:)
It sounds like you already have it down, but if you have more questions on the different types of variables in an experiment check this website out.... https://www.thoughtco.com/independent-and-dependent-variables-differences-606115
Hi Mason,
our group had a question about seeds what would happen if you added acidic water, salt water, and clean water together and spray it on the seeds? on tuesday we talked about After-Ripening, Light, Temperature, Soil, and Competition.
sincerly Kai
Hey Kai,
I like your question. Different types of plant seeds enjoy different types of pH (acid), salt levels, and amounts of water. It all depends on what that specific plant likes. So for example, plants near the beach where there is lots of salt water, tend to have seeds that actually enjoy these salty conditions. Plants that live in volcanic areas (where the soil is acidic) tend to like lower pH (more acidic) soil! I'm impressed you guys are learning all these topics so quickly. It's great to hear.
Hey everyone,
It sounds like you guys are covering great stuff on germination and seed/seedling resource competition. I'm excited to hear more about your experiment and help you guys flesh out a good if you need it.
Hi!
I just looked at a picture of a wetwitshia and my first thought was that it looked like some kind of alien! Maybe because how it just slumps on the floor of how it grows way too big for my comfort zone. Today in class we studied different factors of germination, I was assigned tempatures. Did you know that a turnip can germinate from 40˚- 105˚ F? A question I had while exploring this topic was how could you control the tempatures of a terrarium without changing the required amount of energy that the plant would get from the sun or lights in the wild.
Hi Toby,
Yes lol, those plants look like they could be in Star Wars or something. I'm glad to hear you're learning about seed germination factors because they're crucial to understanding about plant growth in general. I had no idea about turnips temperature range!
Hmmm your question is interesting. I've only read a few science papers that have altered temperatures. In most cases, these scientists use temperature controlled growth chambers. I'm guessing you guys don't have access to these as they can be very expensive (usually $6000). If you guys wanted to do something like that, you could put heaters by certain plants and separate them from the other plants. If you wanted to test a few temperatures you could get a few heaters and adjust their temperatures for each group of plants you test. What temperatures were you thinking? Hope this answered your question!
Hey Mason,
Today we learned about the different factors in the germination of a seed. I learned that seeds of the same type compete for the resources but I was curious in what ways they do.
Hey Jaxon,
I'm glad to hear you're learning about seed germination. What were the main factors you guys covered?
As for your question... I think what you're asking is 'what are the mechanisms of seed/seedling resource competition?'. Am I correct? If so this is an AWESOME question which i think is very interesting and would also like to research in the future. The most obvious mechanisms are root and shoot growth. More roots & bigger leaves = more nutrients and more sunlight to grow. However, some seed/seedlings are known to secrete chemicals that take out other seedlings around them. What's even cooler is that some plants are known to parasitize other plants by sucking nutrients from them. You can make measurements of all of these mechanisms (root mass, leaf area, chemicals in the soil) to see why certain seedlings are more competitive than others.
thank you that clears my question because when my mom planted corn and I gave water I noticed one of the seeds is getting most of the water than the others.
Hey Kai,
Nice yeah that definitely makes sense. I wonder if there were other factors besides competition of nutrients. Maybe some were planted deeper or were smaller? Do you remember or can you think of any other factors that would affect differences in seedling growth?
* my mom and I planted corn
Thanks,
Hey guys,
First of all, awesome team name. As you guys know my name is Mason. I'm a graduate student that will start a program at UC Berkeley in a few months. I study microbes living in plant leaves and how they help plants fight off disease.
You guys already have a knack for one of the most important parts of being a scientist, which is asking great questions. If you have any other questions feel free to ask! Glad I get to talk science with you over the next few weeks and I can't wait to hear more about your project.
Dear Mason
I am Toby and as you already know I go to San Francisco Friends School. I like playing music, at the moment I play the violin for orchestra, cello so I can play it in the orchestra in the future and the piano in my free time. I also really like science because it allows you to come up with your own questions. A unit I’ve real liked in science this year is the periodic table of elements. In this unit we basically covered basic chemistry and basic atom vocabulary, reading elements and balancing equations.
This plant unit was continuing a photosynthesis unit, so I already knew a lot about photosynthesis so this unit I learned the names of parts of plants and how plants grow.
I wonder what the percentage of redwood trees actually become really trees, because I heard somewhere that they grow in bunches around the mother tree but only very few of those baby trees actually make it out.
What's your favorite gymnosperm plant mine is evergreen because its so cool how they manage to keep their needles and stay alive during the winter
Sincerely,
-Toby
Hey Toby,
That's awesome that you're a musician. I try to play the guitar and ukulele when I have time. It sounds like you have a really good grasp on scientific knowledge already.
Your question is very intriguing and would be very interesting to test in the wild. You're right that despite sending out hundreds of thousands of seeds every year only a few of those seeds actually become fully grown. That's because they require a very specific set of environmental conditions including wet soil, just the right amount of sunlight, and enough nutrients to sustain its growth. Great question!
As for my favorite gymnosperm... I like douglas firs because they smell like christmas. Welwitschia is another awesome gymnosperm that lives in the desert. You should google it!
Best,
Mason
Dear Mason,
My name is Kai. In science class so far I know about what is the difference between a seed and a grain.
I know that photosynthesis is what plants eat. They use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. (co2) when you add them all up you get glucose.
What will happen when you plant three of the same seed together? Will they hog up all the water or do they work together.
Sincerely,
Kai
Hi Kai,
My middle name is Hawaiian like yours (Kamalani). That's awesome that you guys have learned so much already!
You have a really great question. Often times, seeds have to compete with each other because there is only a limited amount of water and nutrients in the soil around them. So, yes, they will hog these water and nutrients in order to survive.
However, if there are enough nutrients and water to be shared by the seeds, then the seedlings may work together to make each other healthier. For example, many people plant corn, bean, and squash seeds together because they help each other get stronger. Corn and beans create nutrients of their own, while the leaves of squash make shade for the other plants.
Team Name: Need for seed
Dear Mason,
My name is Jaxon, I enjoy entertaining people and since I was little loved to research volcanoes! Some things I have learned is that dandelion seeds have feathery parachutes to help them fly far from their parent plant. I also learned that Some plants create offshoots of themselves – in the form of bulbs, tubers, corms, or rhizomes – that can grow into new plants. I was curious about how male and female plants are able to get to each other in the wild. What made you want to be a scientist.
Sincerely,
Jaxon
Hey Jaxon,
That's rad that you're into volcanoes. Since I'm from Hawaii I'm lucky enough to go and visit the volcano national park on Big Island every once in a while. You should check it out with your family if you're ever there! There's also a cool plant called ohia lehua that spreads thousands of little seeds and is the first plant to colonize areas after lava flows.
Now for your questions... some plants will have both male and female parts on them (they're called monoecious) so its not too hard to find each other in the wild since they're on the same plant. However, some plants will only have a male or female structure on them (they're called dioecious), these plants will sometimes have special pollinators that are attracted to their flowers to help spread their pollen to each other.
I like being a scientist because I get to work outdoors for plant collections and the research projects i'm interested in help people understand how to better preserve native and endangered plants, which I care about dearly.
Best,
Mason