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| Explore | A plant's major necessity are: water, sunlight, and nutrients from the ground. All plants have their own preference in Hp in the soil, amount of water, and types of growing soils. Many plants can release chemicals for self protection and attracting pollination. Plants and seeds all have specific... |
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| Research Question | Radish are regarded as a very robust and lasting species of plant. They are known to grow in very averse conditions in a variety of environments with much success. This prompts one to look and wonder "Why?" Why are radish so robust? What do they contain that allows them to be so tough, and is... |
| Predictions | There is a chemical that causes bitterness in the radish. We predicted that the excess chemicals from the body will be most effectual in effecting positive growth rate. Because plants release chemicals in some situations, we also concluded that the radish body perhaps would release even more... |
| Experimental Design | Our plan is to have six bags and 36 seeds. Three seeds per bag and we will be having a box. The bags will be inside a box held up with rulers, and the contro; bag only has the seeds and water. There will be three control bags. There will also be 3 leaf experiment bags labeled 1, 2, and 3 same... |
| Conclusion | From the numerical data, there was a significant detriment on the growth in length of both root and hypocotyl of radish seeds when using parts of previous generations of radish in the soil. While there would be no major loss from the leaves, and only nominal loss from the roots, there would be a... |
| About this Project |
Updates
A sincere thank you to our mentors Clare and Brett for helping us out, I will be posting a photo soon of my team's poster for our experiment. As for our written analysis and graphs, they have been posted in the files.
We're going to update the graph in a pdf this time because there were difficulties with excel. We've also fixed our graphs.
Oh, it's my mistake, I didn't see that there were only 2 replicates for root, so my average calculations were wrong. Sorry about that.
By the way I've look at all the files you have posted and I don't see any graphs. I just see data tables.
I looked at your excel sheet and I didn't see a graph. I did notice that some of the averages don't seem quite right. I calculated my own averages and they differed from the data that you have in your table of Averaged consolidated information. Particularly the root data.
If you could post a copy of the excel sheet with some form of commentary about where the discrepancies lie, it would be helpful for us to fix them. We've been pouring over the numbers and we aren't quite sure what it is that you are finding that we cannot see. Thank you
If you could post a copy of the excel sheet with some form of commentary about where the discrepancies lie, it would be helpful for us to fix them. We've been pouring over the numbers and we aren't quite sure what it is that you are finding that we cannot see. Thank you
The graph is in the Excel spreadsheet entitled "Radish Project Info."
If you guys have any requests for how the information be structured or anything you'd prefer to see in the data itself, please leave either a response to this post or a new comment entirely. Thank you.
How is it going? Do you have any more data to add to your excel file? Are you going to analyse the data in any way to help you to draw conclusions?
It's been going fairly well, thank you for asking. we've been mulling over the data for the past couple of days and they ought to all appear before the end of the day. Hopefully, the structure is easy to follow after we get everything in proper order.
Thanks for sharing your photos and I see from the excel file that you are already gathering lots of data. This is great! Do you see any significant differences between the different treatments yet?
Cindy, As I try to understand the data I need to know what units you are using for your measurements. Can you clarify for me to make sure I am understanding correctly - do you have 3 bags (3 replicates) for each treatment and inside each bag you have 3 seeds (sub replicates)?
I see that you have each come up with a hypothesis, make sure you keep those in mind as you assess the plants so that you can relate what you see to the original hypotheses.
Andrew, you mentioned that you have a tight schedule, can you tell me what your time line is a when your deadlines are?
Terribly sorry for leaving out measurements. We are measuring all the radishes in centimeter. We do have three bags for each treatment. The purpose of three bags is to help keep the experiment consistent; Instead of redoing the experiment, we're doing the experiment three times at once to make sure that this is an empirical procedure.
I see that makes sense. I'm glad that you have replicated the treatments in this way. It's important to replicate so that you can see if you get consistent results across all replicates otherwise you would not be able to tell whether the differences that you see are due to random chance (experimental error) or really due to the treatments that you have applied.
In series two and three, it seems that the growth on average of the leaf treatments are growing taller than the other treatments, where in series one, the control is doing best. As we see the zeroes on the spreadsheet, it's not because there was no germination but because the seeds have fallen out of place, disqualifying it from measurement. There was actually only one seed that didn't grow. In series two, seed two is still in place but did not germinate. 35/36 seeds germinated, but many have fallen. All the water in each bag have a tint of yellow, possibly from the young sprouts that fell into the water.
I do not miss academia, I enjoy the freedom I have in industry and the fact that the results of my research are acted upon almost immediately rather than following a lengthy publication process. I used to work in government agencies and industry is much different. I see pro's and con's to both.
Boiled Radish and Other Such Fun is supposed to be the experimental design, sorry for the bizarre naming. It was the only way to make it stick out among my files.
Team,
It's nice to see revisions happening with your experimental design. I do have a few suggestions and comments:
- I am not following your design with the holes in the paper. How will the seeds be contained within these holes? You can always sketch something quickly and upload it to the "Upload and share files" option on the right if that will help describe your experiment.
- What will you be measuring to track "radish growth?" Will you be measuring germination rates, the length of the radicle or epicotyl?
- Why are you including fertilizer with all of your treatments and controls? The addition of fertilizer may hinder germination rates because of an increase in microbial growth that results from increased nitrogen. It seems like the addition of fertilizer to germinating seeds could be an experiment on its own.
- What is your reasoning behind including different plant parts or extracts in your experimental treatments? Why do you think these treatments will have an effect on germination or growth? As you all progress in your scientific expertise, keep in mind the "why" behind your experimental designs. For example, I wouldn't want to investigate the effects of milk on plant growth just because I have milk and plants available. Instead, I may be interested in the effects of minerals (like calcium) on plant growth, and therefore, decide to use milk as a source of calcium. Also, what information is available on the effects of calcium on plant growth and why would plants need it as a mineral? It is these unknowns that should excite scientists like yourselves.
Be sure to update us if you make any changes to your experimental design. Keep up the good work and keep in touch!
-Brett
The purpose of the holes in the paper are to hold the radish seeds in when they're hung up vertically.
For measuring the radish, we will be measuring the height of the radicle and epicotyl separately in centimeters.
There is no particular reason for the fertilizer. It was just an idea at the time.
In regards to why we are using parts from another radish, one of our teammates (Addie) described the taste of radishes as "a sort of sour," which prompted the question "Why is it sour?" which tangentially led to "Wonder what would happen if we used that chemical in growing other radishes?" Andrew posited that maybe it could have a positive effect on the growth, otherwise it wouldn't have much benefit proliferating within the adult radish. From there, we were curious if that chemical was within the leaves and roots of a radish as well.
In conclusion, the holes are to keep the seeds in place as it hangs vertically inside of a ziploc bag. As it grows, we will be measuring the radicles and epicotyl separately in centimeters. The purpose of using radish parts is because we're trying to figure if the radish chemical effective in growth and where it is in a radish.
We forgot to mention how they stay up. The page will be wet around the punctures for the seeds. They should stay up thanks to cohesion between the cellulose, the seed coat, and the water. It was fairly effective at holding up seeds in an earlier class experiment involving "Chicago Fast Plants" as they were labeled. It ought to be enough to hold the seeds up without the use of an adhesive. Sorry for the general vagueness of our outline. We are, as I'm sure you are aware, working with a somewhat strict deadline and that is leaving us a little "flighty" in our writings.
Hello Team and Clare,
It is nice to see you honing your experimental design to a couple of variables. The next steps are to be more specific about how much sand and rock you will add to your soil treatments. Also, make sure you clarify the relative abundance of sand, silt, and clay in your initial control soil that you are starting with. This will help you proceed with treatments that mimic realistic conditions that plants may encounter in nature. It may be difficult to determine how much of each component is in your starting mix if it's not explicitly stated on the soil packaging, but here's a link to get you thinking about about probable soil compositions.
Also, if we decide to go with Raphanus seeds, do we know what soil types they prefer? In what types of habitats are wild Raphanus plants found? I realize we will be working with domesticated lines of plants, but knowing environmental preferences for wild conspecifics will again help us establish more realistic conditions.
One last thing: can you connect your experimental design to a current problem that is facing plants? Keeping an eye out for potential broader impacts of your work will make your experiment much more powerful. Is increased sand or rock a problem for some populations of plants on our planet?
Clare, it's great having you in our group! Where in Oregon did you used to live?
Kind regards,
Brett
Hi Brett, I was in Corvallis for 5 years (OSU) and Salem for 2 years (ODA). What are you doing at PSU? Clare
Hey Clare, I'm working on my dissertation in fungal endophyte communities in ferns. How do you like working in industry? Do you ever miss academia?
-Brett