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 Thursday, December 09, 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 Trevor and Zaire,

Thank you for your kind words.  I have enjoyed working with your Team.  Nice job so far.  Your observation that seeds under red LED light exhibited greater germination rates in comparison with the other colors of LED lights is cool.  Put that together with your observation that seeds germinated inside a bag.  Your conclusion that photosynthesis can grow anywhere is fantastic.  Now you know something about photosynthesis and seed germination that you are learning on your own.  If you think about plants that are grown inside greenhouses with glass, plastic, plexiglass or other transparent or semi-transparent roofs, what can you say about photosynthesis going on inside a greenhouse? 

Keep up the great work and keep me posted.

Plants are cool,

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

That the red LED light germinated more seeds then the other LED lights and Photosynthesis can occur anywhere even if it is inside a bag. We are going to keep on going with our experiment for a couple more days to see what will happen and thank you very much for being our mentor.

Good morning! First and forest thank you for the responses and helping us breakdown our project. My group and I truly appreciate it. I personally like how our project is growing in a classroom and not in its natural environment with a different source of light. 

First and foremost thank you for your service and guidence during our project. Your responses really helped us understand our project more. 

                                                   Thank You- Trevor Malloy

Hi Team and Mrs. Sweeney,

Nice job, team. I enjoyed seeing the photos of your results.  High five.   Fun questions for you.  What did you learn from doing this project?  What did you enjoy the most? If you were going to do a follow-up study, what would you like to do?  Scientists like to design new experiments based on information from the experiment that they just finished.  This is a fun part of doing science.

Enjoy the satisfaction of a job done well.

Plants are cool,

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

Hi Team,

thank you for your photos and updates.  Good thinking that bubbles indicate that photosynthesis.  What can you tell me about the bubbles?  What is in the bubbles?  Do you think that whatever material is inside the bubbles dissolves easily in water? 

Good observation that the seeds grown under white light are showing signs of germination.  Carefully observe those, and any other seeds that are germinating.  Did the seed get larger in size or swel  before the first structure emerged? What color is the first structure that you observed emerging from the seed?  Is the direction of growth of the structure up (away from gravity)  or down (toward gravity.  Keep watching and make the same observations for any additional structures that emerge from the seed.  Seeds are amazing and seed germination is even more amazing.  

Changing the paper towels with fungus growing on them is a great thing to do.  When fungus grows on the paper towels, the paper towels are said to be contaminated.  Something to think about; the fungus can come from touch, perhaps hands, so washing hands, and anything that comes into contact with the seeds, is a good thing.  The fungus can also come from. the air.  Many fungi, (plural of fungus) produce tiny structures that are called spores and are easily carried by air currents and germinate if they land on a suitable surface.  New word for you.  a surface, such as a moist paper towel, would be called a suitable substrate  (one that can support the growth of the fungus).  Have you seen fungus growing on bread, usually older bread?  If you did what color was it? 

Have fun with your project and keep me posted.

Plants are cool,

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

we have had to change the paper towels in our experiment because there was a fungus forming 

For our seeds there hasn't been any change for the past four days. However we observed that photosynthesis has taken place. Also, for our controlled variable which was one of our seeds under a white light, showed signs of germination. 

HI Team

thank you for your update.  Your project will be interesting to follow.  May I suggest a couple of modifications to give your project what scientists call controls?  A control gives your project something to compare red, blue and green light against.  A negative control would be darkness and a positive control would be white light, that is no filters.  What would you expect for seeds grown in darkness?  What would you expect for seeds grown under white light.   Then you can compare rate of growth for your variables, red., blue and green light against the controls and against each other. This makes your experiment more robust.  A robust experiment takes your experiment to the next level. 

have fun and keep me posted.

Plants are cool, 

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

Hi Team,

How's it going.  Keep up your good work, natural curiosity, skills at asking questions and participation in your project.  Looking forward to updates.

Plants are cool,

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

I came up with a result that light from sources such as street lamps will affect the growth of plants. This means that artificial sources of light will change the normal process for a plant to grow.

After our project we came up with a lot of analyzing questions, such as does photosynthesis requires CO2 or can plants actually grow without a source of light, however it has water.

Hi Zaire, Alexander M and Daylin,

I am looking forward to learning about your leaf disk project.  What are you examining?  How are you setting up your project?  Do you have observations an results?   This is the fun part. of science.  Getting to ask "what if?'' and then see what happens. Please keep me posted. Enjoy.

Plants are cool, 

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

HI Zaire, Alexander M and Daylin,

Thank you for your interesting questions.  Photosynthesis utilizes energy from sunlight to transform CO2 and H2O into to Sugar (carbohydrate) and 02.  The plant utilizes enzymes to form carbohydrate, a process which requires energy,  and other enzymes to harvest energy from carbohydrate which combines with carbohydrate and other materials to to form plant matter, and in addition to do all of the processes necessary for plants to survive.  Enzymes are necessary, some of which help release energy for the synthesis (putting together) of plant matter.  On the other hand humans and birds and lions and mosquitos to name a few undergo cellular respiration and need carbohydrate from plants plus O2 for survival, to harvest energy and for making materials for survival.  Humans and other critters release CO2 and H20.  Cool.  Do you see how plants and animals are necessary for the survival of each other?

So, given the information above, right on Zaire. Good question, Alexander M.  Short answer, depends on the plant, how abrupt the change in climate occurs, and how severe the climate change is.  Consider what happens as summer transitions to fall and winter.  Do tomato plants in a garden survive frost?  on the other hand, some plants can survive a light frost and for others, the above ground portions of the plant can die, yet the below ground portion may survive and grow again the next year.  So an abrupt change to a hot dry desert climate might be a bit too much of a change.

Keep up your good work and your wonderful curiosity about what you are learning.  Cool indeed.

Plants are cool, 

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

Hello, my team and I were wondering if photosynthesis continues over and over again? Does the process ever stop, and does it mean that plant's stop growing as well.

Hello, we are learning about photosynthesis and I was curious if a plant can adapt to a harsh climate, what i mean is if we took a normal plant and put it in the desert will it adapt and continue growing or will it die?

Hello, so today we learned about limiting factors and I would like to know how long could a plant last without sunlight and if it could still grow without it, If so what plants?

Hi Alexander M and Zaire,

How is it going?  Any observations to share?

Plants are cool,

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

Hi Alexander M and Zaire,

Follow-up to the question: Also can you tell me if you have done an experiment that did not work out the way you wanted, if so then what did you do to try and correct it?

The short answer is yes.  the path to scientific  discovery is paved with experiments that did not work.  A scientist, and anyone who is curious and creative, does not take it personally, or blame, and instead asks why the experiment did not work.  This is a wonderful opportunity to do a bit of sleuthing and problem solving.  All scientists keep lab notebooks in which they record everything including but not limited to observations that let to the important questions "what if"and "why". They ask what do they think is going to happen, called the hypothesis, and how can the hypothesis be tested. A good experiment has a control. The control is something that can be compared to the treatment (what you do to try and answer the question "what if" or "why".  The control also allows the scientist to determine if results are due to random chance or to the treatment.  Everything is recorded, a detailed description of how things were set up,what was done, observations and measurements of everything, daily or as often as possible.  Results are recorded and graphs are made. Then hummmm, what are the results telling us.

 If the results and hypothesis do not match, scientists say in our hands under our conditions, the results do not support the hypothesis.  This provides a great opportunity for learning about the scientific process.  go over each step asking the question, might an error have occurred in this step?  If time permits, repeat the experiment this time changing the experiment based on the benefit of what you have learned. Sometimes it takes several tries.  This is all good.  Scientists keep learning.  Sometimes the results do not support the hypothesis and the answer may not be discovered using  available technology.  Some questions may remain unanswerable for years and years. 

Finally, from personal experience when  I was a graduate student working on my Ph.D. I was working on experiments involving plants.  We thought that something was occurring, so i set up an experiment and the results did not support the experiment.  Many experiments later, doing the same one over, trying various modifications, and still the results did not support the hypothesis.  Finally a "wow!" moment.  We were asking the question based on our expectations and not on what the results were telling us. You guessed it, something else was happening.  And it was way cooler that our original hypothesis.  So, new hypothesis and shift into high gear to try and figure out what was happening.  Cool, indeed.

Hope that this long message helps.  Take home for you: science is cool.  No right no or wrong no blame.  Stay cool and hang in there.  Learning opens the door to more learning, and that nis hoe discoveries are made.

Questions?  Please let me know.

Plants are cool, 

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

Hi Alexander M and Zaire,

Thank you both for your posts.  Interesting questions about the origins of the mass of a tree.  Good news. You are on the right track.  Your questions relate to the post that I made earlier about photosynthesis which is copied and pasted below. 

         Cool facts about plants for you.  The word photosynthesis is made of two little words, photo for         light and synthesis for putting things together.   With carbon dioxide (CO2) and water using energy         from sunlight plants plants make glucose (a sugar that you might eat on your cereal) and oxygen         that you need to breath in to survive.  Everything in the plant is made from glucose, roots, stems,         leaves branches, flowers, fruit and seeds and more. 

More cool facts.  In other words, because plants do not have to eat anything to produce the mass of the tree.  All they need is carbon dioxide (CO2) and water using energy from sunlight plants plants make glucose (a sugar that you might eat on your cereal) and release oxygen  that you need to breathe in from the air to survive.  We need oxygen and breathe out CO2.  Plants need CO2 and release oxygen.  Do you see an important connection between plants and human beings and all living organisms such as dogs and cats and bears? We human beings, cannot do photosynthesis, everything that we need to grow and survive comes from something that we eat and water and oxygen.  Another fun fact:  Plants and all other living organisms need water.  Cool.

Questions and discussion are our friends.

Stay tuned for a separate post on scientific experiments that did not result in expected outcomes.

Keep me posted, you have great curiosity, which is important for science and football and everything we do.

Plants are cool,

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

Hello, and I play offense. In class a subject we've been talking about, where does the mass of a tree come from, and the von Helmont experiment. I was wondering if the plant's mass doesnt come from the soil, wouldn't that mean it comes from the air?

Yesterday we discussed where the mass of a tree comes from and the von Helmont experiment we learned that after the experiment was conducted, the soil at the end of the experiment was compared soil to the start of the experiment did not change significantly. Also can you tell me if you have done an experiment that did not work out the way you wanted, if so then what did you do to try and correct it?

Yesterday we discussed where the mass of a tree comes from and the von Helmont experiment we learned that after the experiment was conducted, the soil at the end of the experiment was compared soil to the start of the experiment did not change significantly. Also can you tell me if you have done an experiment that did not work out the way you wanted, if so then what did you do to try and correct it?

Hi Team 9,

Welcome to Planting Science. I am looking forward to mentoring your group.  I am a retired Professor of Biology from a small university in rural South Dakota located in the Northern Great Plains. We have two stop lights in town and the nearest Walmart is about 45 miles away.

hat do you like to do for fun?  What do you enjoy the most about school?  What is your favorite music group or individual?  What are your favorite things to eat?  What are your favorite fruits and/or vegetables? Tell me something that you know about plants.  What would you like to learn about plants?

Fun fact, over 70,000 plant species are used for medicine.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.  Questions are welcome.

Plants are cool,

Donna Hazelwood, Ph.D.

Hello!