Planting Science - Projects: TEAM JAB
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TEAM JAB

Project by group mhsschellingspring2018


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 What do we want to test or study? How did we come up with the question(s). How does the question fit what we know about the topic?
Predictions What are the possible outcomes of our study given the variables we are working with? What is our explanation for why and how we think this will happen?
Experimental Design What is our plan? Be sure to include enough detail that another group can replicate our experiment. What variables will we test? What variables will we measure and observe? What variables will we keep constant? How will we record our data?
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

This student project was an example of how true science can be sometimes. The students planted their first trials and had a major failure when most of their plants died. Instead of giving up and getting frustrated, they replanted new trials and modified their set up. The students came in...

Updates

Get to know your team’s scientist mentor, who will encourage and guide you through the scientific process of discovery. The more you share your ideas and research info, the more your mentor can help. You may also hear from a scientist mentor liaison who will be helping all the teams in your class.
PlantingScience Staff
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PlantingScience Staff
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Jason
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Jason
said

Ross,

We would like to thank you for your help during this Planting Science experiment. It has been a very educational experience, and we couldn't have done it without your help. You helped us plan and execute this experiment, and we can't thank you enough for that.

One last random question before we part ways: Do you have a favorite ice cream flavor? 

Thank you again for all of your help. 

Sincerely, 

Team JAB

Jason
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Brett
said

We would like to take measurements of height, leaf area, and stomatal density. What kind of graphs would you recommend to use for representation of data?

Also do you read it data or data?

    Ross McCauley
    said

    For graphing are you gong to be collecting these values over time or just once?  If over time then your sampled values are what we call your dependent variables and these should be placed on the y-axis and time, your independent variable, should be on the x-axis. For measuring over time I would recommend a line graph.  If you are making the measurement once than a bar graph.  Draw out an example of such a graph and send me a photo.  Make sure as well that you label your axes correctly.  If you send me a photo I can help you with that.  As for your '"data" question I'm assuming you mean the pronunciation?  Data is with a long "a" on the first "a".

Brett
said

We are going to restart the plants they never sprouted and they were very dry and dead after break, we will compare stomata closure so we will cut a part of the leaf and do the nail polish, count 150 and compare 

    Ross McCauley
    said

    Hey team - how's it going? Sorry to hear about the death of the plants. Hope that your second set will be more successful.  Regarding the stomatal counts it will be hard with the nail polish technique to tell if they are open or closed.  It is best for looking at stomatal density.  And I think between your treatment groups that might vary.  To do the technique make sure you have clear nail polish.  Brand doesn't seem to matter much but believe me, the colored ones don't work.  Paint on a little polish to the underside of the leaf.  Wait 15-20 minutes.  You want to make sure it's good and dry and it takes longer to dry on a leaf than on fingernails.  Then take a razor blade and carefully peel the polish off and place it on a microscope slide and look at it.  The power you use will depend on your microscope and the size of your stomata so I can't give you advice on that one.  But it will be easy to figure out the field of view and determine the density of the stomata.  Here is some work for you.  Could you tell me how you would determine the field of view under your microscope?  Hint. Think a little about geometry and circles. Let me know if you need another hint. 

Brett
said

We have the tops cut off to allow for growth, in the box. We are using all the fans to vary wind speeds.

    Ross McCauley
    said

    Thanks for the update team. How about light in this box.  Will the plants be able to get a good level of light? What are your plans for this week?  Have you decided yet on what measurements you are going to make?

Brett
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    Ross McCauley
    said

    Thanks for sending photos. It looks like you are varying fans here?  Are you trying to choose one or are you going to use all of them to give differing amounts of wind? Let me know.  And what is it with the Betco box?  Are you plants going to be inside?  Give me a little more explanation about your experimental set up.

Brett
said

As far as modifying for moisture loss we figured we just wouldn’t, we would just let the plant die if it couldn’t make it unless you have a suggestion. We may not make a huge focus on the leaf orientation but maybe write up on how it varied. So I’ll upload some photos of how we plan on setting up our experiment once I figure out how to do that. Also, I’m not sure if you’re able to do this, but is there any way you could reexplain this article so I can take notes in our journal that’ll make sense to us, as to actually be useful because this is a seemingly very good article, but we can’t comprehend it so if you could highlight some key points that would be good to jot down in our notebook. 

    Ross McCauley
    said

    Hey Team - glad to hear you are making progress.  As for moisture loss you might need to account for it a little or you might not have much of an experiment.  How about just checking the water in the soil everyday and make sure it's moist?  What is your set up going to be like?  How are you providing the wind to the plants?  A fan?  Let me know or better, send me a photo with an explanation of what everything is. And what are you going to be measuring?  You say no great focus on leaf orientation but what are you looking at?  As for the paper it is a little complex, but I'm glad to see you taking a stab at it.  The easiest part to understand is the Discussion. Read through this  little more. What the paper is doing is trying to assess how leaf stomatal closure is related to water stress in the plant stems.  The idea is pretty simple.  As the plant gets stressed because it doesn't have enough water the stomata are signaled to close.  When open the stomata allow for water to leave the plant.  This is critical for providing flow of minerals and nutrients but it's a balance - too much and you dry out and die.  So when stressed you close your stomata.  But how does this differ among different species.  This is the question they were trying to answer and to address this is a variety of tropical species.  Previous work had mostly taken place in temperate species.  They found that there is a lot of variation among these different tropical trees in how the stress of water loss is making the stomata close.  That's the big picture of it. That help?

Brett
said

That sounds great! Our research has been pretty skimpy. We do not have very much research as we were waiting to see which seed you would recommended. We have found that they could potentially dry out from losing too much water and they may even grow their leaves a different direction as to be more aero dynamic. Would you recommend just looking at the amount of open and closed stomata instead of mass of stem, or something else?

    Ross McCauley
    said

    Ok. As now you know a plant to focus on you can start to ramp this up a bit.  You are absolutely right about the drying out part, that's a big problem for germinating seeds.  How do you think you could modify your set up to minimize this drying? And isn't it cool that plants can grow differently in response to their environment?  Have any of you guys had the chance to get into any high mountain areas, particularly at the elevation of the tree line?  There can be some great growth forms that plants take there.  Look up the vegetation type, which is really just a plant growth response, called Krummholz.  What is it that causes this growth pattern?  As for what to focus on you can do stomata - that would be interesting or you can look at the angle of leaf initiation on the stems.  Sort of following up with idea you found in your research.  I would say that mass alone might now be that informative for you. It's up to you.  When you have an idea jot it down here and we can work together to figure out how you want to set up the experiment.

Brett
said

As of now we are working on background info

    Ross McCauley
    said

    Hi everyone.  Spring break here and I went down to New Mexico for a few days and getting back to things I missed.  How is your background info coming?  And what are you finding?  Did you decide on the plant you will be studying?  I recall an earlier post was asking for some suggestions. If you haven't decided I would probably lean toward soybean.  As you are looking at wind and might like to examine some aspect of the stem, soy have the largest stems of the plants you suggested.  In your research have you come upon anything relating wind to transpiration (the loss of water from the plant tissue)?  Anything about stomata?  If you haven't, look into it, it can be pretty cool.  Those little stomata on the leaves can change, both in how they react to their environment and in their density and there is an easy way to measure them with clear nail polish and an microscope.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Cheers.

Brett
said

As of now we are working on background info

Jason
said

Hello. 

My name is Jason, and I'm a junior. I'm on the left in the picture. 

I love to write music and stories. I also love to watch movies and read comics. 

I am interested in working with my group on whether wind affects the growth of plants in the thickness of stems, or whether different solutes in the soil affect the overall growth of plants?

What is your favorite movie?

Thank you. 

    Victory Coffey
    said

    Hi Jason! 

    Cool to meet a creative individual. I find that people who are very artistic usually come up with some of the coolest questions in science! 

    I think that those questions are really neat and I'd say that deciding what to investigate will definitely be a challenge. I know I usually have so many going through my head it can be hard to sort out but it can often be fixed by deciding how you can take a question and place it in the 'real world' so to speak. 

    And my favourite movie at this very moment is probably Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. But it fluctuates. What about you? 

    Good luck!

    Victory

    Jason
    said

    Thank you for your response!

    Yes, I am very excited to be working with my group on this research project. 

    I respect your movie choice, Return of the Jedi is one of the better Star Wars movies. As far as favorite movie goes... Well, most of the Marvel movies. Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming come to mind. 

    Thank you again for your response and help!

Brett
said

Also, I’m going to be the person that responds on behalf of our group for the most part.

Brett
said

We are going to study the effects of wind on a plants growth (stem thickness, direction of growth, color, or any other things you believe would be significant to test). Which plant do you think will give best results? We are choosing between soybean, nasturtium, pea, or buckwheat.

Ross McCauley
said

Hello everyone - good to meet you.  Glad to hear that everyone is excited to get started on your research! A little about me.  I am a professor of botany and evolutionary biology at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.  If you don't know where that is it's in the southwest corner of the state in the area known as the Four Corners - where AZ, UT, NM, and CO all meet.  Biologically it's pretty nice as to the north of town we go up into the Rockies and to the south into the deserts.  

So what gave you the idea to study seed germination or the effect of wind on plants?  Either one would be fine to study.  Think about what sounds the most interesting and feasible and let me know your thoughts.  Together we can work on the experimental design as you set it up.     

And you ask about favorite movie.  That's hard.  Of recent movies I have to say I liked The Martian - being a botanist I couldn't help but love it when the main character said he was the best botanist on the planet and he saved himself by knowing about botany.  As I have an 8-year old son I have to say there has been lots and lots of Star Wars recently.  He likes to watch all the movies, particularly the originals and while I try not to I always watch with him since even if I've seen it 20 times I still like it. 

You also asked what kind of things I like to grow.  I have random house plants, but nothing overly special - I normally do my botanizing out in the wild.  We keep a raised bed garden at home.  Our mountain soil is pretty bad for growing much.  But we do garlic - probably the easiest thing ever, plus various peppers and beans - potatoes too - they tend to do well - and those don't always fall victim to the large number of deer.  I live a little out of town so bear and deer are real common.  Mountain lion are around too but seeing one is next to impossible.  I have a zoologist colleague who has worked here for 20 years and has seen every animal in the area except for the mountain lion. 

Let me know your thoughts on setting up your project.  Again, good to meet you all.

Cheers,

Ross

Anthony
said

My name is Anthony and I live on a dairy farm with around 250 animals.  I am the person on the right in the picture.  I am currently a junior and I am involved in many activities from NHS to 4H. We are interested in either doing a project about wind speed compared to the weight of the plant or different solutes within a water solution compared to the germination of the plant.  What types of vegetation do you grow? Thanks

    Victory Coffey
    said

    Hi Anthony! It's awesome to have someone with farm experience on the team! My current lab actually works in collaboration with many farms (mostly those who grow forage or raise livestock for beef) so it'll be awesome to work with you and maybe hear about the dairy experience. I think some of the coolest collaborations happen between academic science and agriculture so I can't wait to hear your ideas!

    I really like the questions you have focused on and it'll be interesting to talk them out with your team. Let me know what you choose! I'm very curious.

    And for me? I sadly don't get to grow many things during the summer because I am usually away from home in my own 'field' of sorts. I work in the prairies so I get to spend my time near beautiful native plants and a few not-so-beautiful exotic ones that have arrived from elsewhere. That's my equivalent of a 'garden' but the advantage is I can be super lazy and it takes care of itself. Haha. 

    Take care!

    Victory  

Ross McCauley
joined the project
Brett
said

I’m Brett. I’m the Middle one. My main interest is chemistry, I run XC, play basketball, and polevault in track, pacing my XC coach for his 100 mile, and I lift. We are thinking about doing different solutes in water and seeing how it effects germination or setting up fans and seeing if wind speed effects mass of the plant. What is your favorite movie?

    Victory Coffey
    said

    Hi Brett! Nice to meet you. You seem to maintain a busy life but that's awesome that you get to participate in a neat variety of activities! I love chemistry too (my undergrad major was technically Biochemistry) so it's nice to hear you enjoy it! 

    I think the questions you are asking sound fascinating and it'll be interesting to hear about what you decide! If you need any help let me know!

    And favourite movie? Hmmm... I think Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is probably my current favourite (but honestly it really just depends on my mood, the weather, what I ate for lunch...etc.). How about you?

    Take care,

    Victory

Victory Coffey
said

Hi All!

My name is Victory and I'll be filling in for your mentor until they can get set up to come assist you during your experiment! I'm super excited to get started and can't wait to hear all of your ideas. Feel free to ask me questions whenever the need arises! 

All the best,

Victory

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