| Explore | Plants are all unique in their own ways, but are mostly known to all be able to produce their own food called glucose. Based on a reliable (.org) source I found: “The principal environmental requirements for plant growth include adequate space for root and canopy development, sufficient light, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and mineral elements, and temperature suitable for essential physiologic processes.” (http://www.guamsustainableag.org/plantgrowth/Growth_Requirements%20(6).pdf) Rice starch-based water Research: We found that brown rice has more starch than white rice and therefore, decided it would be a much better choice to use in order to really see results during this experiment. According to research starch helps plants grow faster and possibly healthier. Source: "The starches from leftover rice water will help encourage beneficial soil bacteria, while the vitamins and minerals will add small amounts of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) to the soil. Obviously, you should wait until the water has cooled before you start to use it on the plants." (https://www.baliadvertiser.biz/rice-watering-garden/) |
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| Research Question | Does a hydroponics system with brown rice-based starch added to the water increase the growing speed of cherry tomato plants faster than a hydroponics system without added starch water from the rice? |
| Predictions | If brown rice-based starch water is added to one hydroponics system and not added to an identical one, then the system with the brown rice starch-based water will contain plants that grow at a more rapid pace. |
| Experimental Design | Boil water with brown rice for five minutes (ratio: 1 cup water to 1 cup rice) Cool water and pour into the soil of the plant Poor control water into an identical plant at the same time Place control cherry tomatoes in the same environment Measure the amount of water per plant equally each day when watering (brown rice starch-based water and control water) Water each plant every other day (can be 2-3 days) Wait for the cherry tomatoes to grow Record results and compare (which grew faster and if starch-based successfully did) Materials List: Brown Rice Water 2 Tomato Plants (already pretty big) Something to boil the water and rice (to extract the starch base from the brown rice) Something to boil the water and rice in Measuring cup (i.e. 1 cup of rice per 1 cup of water) |
| About this Project | This team showed resilience in face of an extraordinary scenario. Despite the global pandemic having affected their capacity to perform their planned experiment, they remained engaged with the project and looked for lessons in previous experiments that were aimed at testing their hypothesis, keeping up with communication in the online forum. |