| Explore | Plants are vital to human survival and play key roles in our lives from producing oxygen to providing proper food. They come in many shapes and sizes, and benefit humans all over the world. Many factors contribute to plant growth and survival, such as the amount of water and sunlight provided to plants. Many questions are brought up on plant growth and survival based off these factors and many others including the following: 1. How would a seed germinate in an environment with more/less oxygen than normal? 2. How does the time you water the plant effect germination? 3. Does the depth of the seed in the soil effect germination? 4. How does temperature affect germination/are more humid climates conducive for germination? 5. How does the type of sunlight the plants get impact the germination process? 6. How does the type of water affect germination? 7. How does soaking the seeds affect germination? 8. Does the water temperature impact the process of germination? 9. How does the location affect germination? 10. How does the type of soil affect germination? 11. How does the nitrogen levels in the fertilizer affect germination? 12. How does the size of the container affect the germination process? |
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| Research Question | Our group is interested in drought and its possible effects on seed germination, and this led us to question whether the amount of water used to water seeds impacts the process of seed germination. This is an important question because drought severely affects plant growth and survival across the globe impacting organisms relying on them in the area. |
| Predictions | The possible outcomes could be that some seeds with a certain variable could germinate at a different rate or not even germinate at all compared to other seeds with other variables that could germinate faster and better. We will think this will happen because plants require different amounts of water for germinating at the best rate, and each group isn't at the same amount of water. |
| Experimental Design | We plan to test this by watering 16 pea seeds (4 in each group) with 4 different water amounts. The 4 groups would be the fully saturated group watered with 20ml of water, the half-saturated group watered with 10ml of water, the droplets group watered with 2ml of water, and the unsaturated group watered with 0ml of water. The seeds would be watered once a day, 5 days a week excluding the weekends. We would measure the radical growth and the sprout growth of each seed each time they are watered, and the data would be put on the excel file. The study would last approximately 5 days (day 0-14). |
| Conclusion | This study conducted on the saturated of seeds showed that contrary to expectations, the fully saturated seeds outperformed the half-saturated seeds. Thus, indicating that seeds slightly submerged in water were most successful. The analysis yielded a p-value of 0.55, indicating no significant relationship between water levels and radical growth, likely due to limitations such as the small sample size, lack of weekend data collection, and short experimentation period. We suggest that seeds should be fully saturated when watered for optimal radical and sprout growth. This study helps the community as it shows the results of different saturated seeds which correlates to drought levels. It shows how drought can affect plant growth in near-by communities. Finally, future studies could benefit from a larger sample size and using cups of soil to provide nutrients, so that the community may be better prepared for the effects of drought and water levels on seed germination. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| Teacher Name | Michael Frazer |
| School Name | Valley Stream North High School |
| Session | Spring 2024 |
| About this Project | This project went really well because the students took a big picture subject like climate change and distilled it well with the help of their mentor into something they could test in the classroom using seeds. Both parties did a great job communicating! -- Imeña Valdes, Liaison |