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 Tuesday, April 25, 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

Dear Ms. Dawson, 

Thank you for your time and support through this plant experiment. I hope you have a nice day! 

Hi Hilary, 

I wanted to thank you so much for helping me throughout this process and I just want to say that I am done with my experiment and I really appreciate all the pointers and helpful questions you asked and presented. 

Izzy, I'm sorry to hear that your seeds have gone moldy. Could you remind me which liquid treatment they had? Is anyone else seeing mold?

Youbin, you mentioned a possible white mold. Seeds often have very fine roots to help them grow. Do you think you're seeing mold or fine root hairs? Since they're growing in milk, either one seems quite possible.

For our 6th day of the experiment, my reddish seed that was planted in the water at about 25C room temperature, the plant became about 12 cm long. The sprouts are thin and white. At the end of the sprout, there are two leaves coming up and below there is a branch of another sprout with two leaves. In the bag where the seeds are planted on the cotton with the water spilled, the bag is blown up with air. However, in the ziploc bag with the seeds are planted on the cotton with milk spilled, there isn't much air to show the changes in the Ziploc bag compared to the beginning of the lab. It has slightly more air than the first day of the experiment. But the reddish seeds are still growing. They look healthier than the ones that are grown in water as they have thicker leaves coming straight out from the seeds. On the first day of this experiment, they both had sprouts coming out of seed first. However, in the milk one, the sprout turned white and stopped growing much and start to have white furs with having the bottom of the sprout with leaves. It looks like they are growing from opposite places now.  

Today, which is the 6 day of collecting data from the experiment, I collect the data of the appearance of plants and the length of sprouts by not opening the plastic bags. I can find that there are more mold in the Group A cotton balls than yesterday. Also some leaves fall out from the plants, and one whole plant also falls out from the cotton balls. I think I handle the plants in the wrong way. The color of the plants were light green and some yellow and there are some brown dots on the surface of the leaves. 

Group A : 1.8cm/ 1.6cm

Group B : 3.5cm/ 1.5cm

Today, which is the 6 day of collecting data from the experiment, I collect the data of the appearance of plants and the length of sprouts by not opening the plastic bags. I can find that there are more mold in the Group A cotton balls than yesterday. Also some leaves fall out from the plants, and one whole plant also falls out from the cotton balls. I think I handle the plants in the wrong way. The color of the plants were light green and some yellow and there are some brown dots on the surface of the leaves. 

Group A : 1.8cm/ 1.6cm

Group B : 3.5cm/ 1.5cm

For day 6, the water sprouts they don't look like they have changed much, they are the same length. There seems to be a liquid I believe to be water on the leaves. One of the sprouts in this bag is short and has brown dots and a yellow spot. I think this sprout may die. Two sprouts in the seltzer water bag are 5cm and and 6cm long while the other two in this bag haven't grown. There looks to be the same liquid on the leaves in this bag. One of the short ones is like a white yellowish color. Both the smaller ones haven't had there seeds/shell fall off the leaves yet. 

Today, which is the 5 day of collecting data of the experiment, I collect the data of the length of sprouts and appearance of seeds by not opening the plastic bags. Overall, the plants grow more than 2 days before. 3 out of 4 plants grow but actually these grow really a bit more than before. And the other one grows really well, it grows 2cm. Also in group A, there is mold in the cotton balls.

Group A : 1.5cm/ 1cm

Group B : 3cm/ 1.5cm

For our day 5 observations on seeds, the seeds grew a lot over the weekend. The seeds that are planted in water has grown abt 8 tp 9 centimeters long sprout with the two leaves at the end. The ziploc bag that was flat in the beginning of the experiment, but now it is fulled with air in the bag. On the other hand, the seeds that are planted in milk are thicker and smaller than the ones grown in the water with less air produced. Also, in the one planted in milk, for last past few days there was only 2 to 3 cm white root with the white mold fur, but today, at the bottom of the sprouts on the top of the seed, there are thick leaves grown. 

Hi everyone,

My name is Asawari and I am the liasion for your group who will help your mentor and your teacher! I am a PhD student at the University of Toronto, Canada working on evolution of parasitic plants ie these supercool plants that cannot photosynthesize themselves so they take help from other plants! 
I will check on the updates in the group every few days and try to respond as soon as possible (in case mentor is not able to) so that your group can maximise the learning from this session.
Hope for a great session and good luck with your experiments!

Asawari

Today was day 5, we did not get to observe our seeds over the weekend. The water seeds grew a lot, two of the 4 seeds grew to 7cm long and one grew tp 8cm and one grew to 2cm this one didn't change much. For the seltzer water they didn't grow as long but I think we had a little growth in two of the seeds, two are 4 and 5cm long, while the other two barely get to 1cm. I think these two may have stopped growing. 

Izzy or Bella can someone measure the plants for me? And email me pictures if possible

today was day 7 and when I went to take observations of my seed today it was completely covered in black mold. the seeds that were growing the most were covered in black mold and it was very clear that there had been no growth over the span of the time from my last observation. the other cotton ball that contained one seed that has not grown at all and the seed that had slowly sprouted also have mold on them. the one that sprouted also started to grow white mold along the sprout coming out of the seed itself. Due to the mold and the lack of growth observed today I will be trashing my bag with the seeds in them and declairing today that all my seeds have died.

On our 4th day of the experiment, the seeds planted in water grew bigger. It is shorter than the ones grown in the milk, but has a green and thick sprout with two leaf coming up. It isn't growing straight. It is growing more round so it's hard to measure, but the sprout is about 0.3 cm. In the ones planted in milk have very thin white sprout that looks like parasite with the white fur in the middle. However, I think it's still growing with the mold looking white fur as the end part doesn't have fur.

Today which is the 4th day of the experiment, I collect the data of the appearance of seeds and the lengths of sprouts. To collect the data, I need to open the plastic bag to observe more specifically. The four seeds have their sprouts. One of them is green and the other are yellow. And the yellow sprouts have some brown dots on the surface. The green sprout has some fur on its stem. And for the better observation, I named the two cotton balls: A and B

Group A left/ right seeds : around 0.2 cm

Group B left/ right seeds : l cm / 0.5 cm

In our final lab report we want to put that a possible margin of error in this experiment would be that since the sprouts grew into the cotton balls most of the measurements had to be approximated but we did our best to make it as accurate as possible

Today is the 4th day of the experiment, one of the seeds in the water bag has leaves and is fully out of the brown shell. This sprout seems to have grown a root into the cotton ball this sprout is about 2 centimeters long. The three other seeds in the water bag have all sprouted leaves but they are still closed and kinda in a ball one of these seeds is 1 centimeter one is about a quarter of a centimeter and one is about 1 and a half centimeters. It looks like the brown shell hasn't fully come off. All four of the seeds in the seltzer water have a least a sprout. Two of them look like to have roots in the cotton ball, but on the stem of all the sprouts looks to be white fuzz. Two sprouts are about 1 and a half centimeters, one sprout is 1 centimeters, and one is about half a centimeter. All our measurements are approximate because most have grown into the cotton balls which we can't really see. 

all of the measurement that were taken was using from the end of the root coming out of the seed to the seed shell and we used centimeters on a ruler to measure the progress in the growth 

today the seed that had the longest sprout yesterday is has grown to about 3/4 of a centimeter total and the root has begun to grow into the inside of the cotton ball, the other seed inside that same cotton ball has a sprout that is about half a centimeter. the seed that is half a centimeter is still dyed red from the color of the gatorade. In the other cotton ball the seed that began sprouting yesterday has grow a very small amount and now it is about a quarter of a centimeter long now. The fourth seed in the bag does not seem to have sprouted at all.

Today which is the 3rd day of the experiment, I collect the data of the appearance of seeds and the lengths of sprouts that start to grow. To collect the data, I opened the plastic bag and pulled out the cotton balls so that I could take pictures of them and observe them more specifically. So all the seeds start to grow and all of them open, and one of them starts to germinate and grows 0.5cm. I think the reason we collect the data of lengths of sprouts and appearance of seeds is because we want to see that the different liquids affect the germination. 

We are measuring the length of the sprouts and that is the only variable we are measuring because we wanted to only focus on one measurement because we are using so many different liquids we didn't want to confuse our data 

Today on day two, I examined the difference between the seeds planted in the cotton ball soaked in water and cotton ball soaked in milk. They were kept in same temperature for a day. All of my seeds are cracked open and their roots started to come out. However, based on their location of where they were planted and the liquid the length of the roots grown differ. In the seeds that are planted at the corner seemed to grow slower than the ones grown in the middle of the cotton ball. The ones at the corner roots are hardly able to be seen. On the other hand, ones planted in the center of the cotton ball, their roots came out and can be easily seen. Also, the ones planted in water had longer roots than the ones planted in milk. 

today on day three, in the water bag three seeds have sprouted half a centimeter root. While the other one in the bag is a centimeter long. In the seltzer water bag one is a little over a centimeter long, while one seed just opened and the other two have half a centimeter of root growing. These measurements aren't the most accurate because the seeds grew into the cotton and was very hard to see. 

On the third day of our experiment, the seeds that are planted in water seemed to sprout more and they are green with two leaves that are closed together. The seeds planted in water seems to come out more round than the seeds planted in mik. Seeds planted in milk have their sprouts coming out very thin and long. It's about 0.3 cm and their sprouts are white. While the seeds planted in water have green sprouts coming out from pink radish seeds. 

It's great that many of you are already seeing germination. What type of measurements or other data are you collecting as you observe your seeds? Why did you choose to measure these variables?

Today on day three I observed that the other seed that shares the cotton ball with the seed that was growing yesterday has sprouted. The sprout is about half a centrimeter and it has started to grow into the cotton ball. The seed that started to open yesterday has not changed from yesterday to today. The other cotton ball in my bag with the other two seeds have not started sprouting or changed at all.

I also just noticed that the cotton ball where I assumed nothing was growing actually has a very small sprout that I missed when I was previously observing the seeds. 

Hello, my name is Youbin. I am a WMA student. I don't have any pets. I like to go out for a run during my free time. I have questions about the carbon drawdown project that you said you are working on. How is carbon drawdown calculated? For the group project, are there ways to measure which kinds of nutrients are produced based on changes in their heights from the plants that are grown in different kinds of liquids other than water?

Today, which is the 2nd day of the lab, we collect the data of the seeds. I need to open the plastic bags because the seeds were covered by the cotton balls so that I cannot collect thet data without open it. So, when I open the plastic bags, and take them out. The cotton balls were still wet and 3 seeds out of 4 were opened, and the seed skin peeled off a little. Also only the control group seed sprouted. 

Today on day two in my seltzer water bag one of my seeds have sprouted. The root is about half a centimeter long. One of the other seeds looks like it has cracked open a little. It looks like a plan yellow almost off white sliver in the brown seed. The two other seeds in the seltzer bag hasn't changed. The seeds in the water bag all look like they have cracked open but none of them have a root yet. The one sprout in the seltzer bag is the only sprout in the lab for our group 

Today on day two there was no change in the seeds, I had to open up the bag quickly so that I could open up the cotton balls because I could not see the seeds through the bag without opening the bag, I quickly opened the bag and rearranged the seeds to that I could see them in the future without opening the bag and distrubing the seeds further. There has been no change on three of my seeds. But on the fourth seed it looks like one of the seeds started to open but nothing was growing out side of it. However it did look like on the inside of the seed where the shell opened the red dye from the gatorade seemed to dye the inside of the seed as it started to absorb the gatorade.

Today on day two there was no change in the seeds, I had to open up the bag quickly so that I could open up the cotton balls because I could not see the seeds through the bag without opening the bag, I quickly opened the bag and rearranged the seeds to that I could see them in the future without opening the bag and distrubing the seeds further. There has been no change on three of my seeds. But on the fourth seed it looks like one of the seeds started to open but nothing was growing out side of it. However it did look like on the inside of the seed where the shell opened the red dye from the gatorade seemed to dye the inside of the seed as it started to absorb the gatorade.

Today, for our group 1 lab of finding if the seeds could germinate in different kinds of liquid other than water, I used milk and water, seeds, plastic baggie, and cotton balls. First, I got few cotton balls out and soaked them in a plate of water. Then I took out the cotton balls and put 3 seeds on top of the cotton balls. The water will help the plant to photosynthesize. Finally, I put the cotton balls with the seeds in the plastic baggie that is labeled water and sealed the bag. This will be used as a control variable to compare with the plants that are grown through other liquids. I repeated this process with the milk. First, I soaked the cotton balls in a plate of milk. Then, took out the cotton balls and put 3 seeds on top of the cotton balls. Finally, I put the cotton balls with the seeds on top in the plastic bag labeled milk and sealed the bag.

Hi everyone,

It sounds like you're off to a great start with a clear question and methods. I enjoyed reading your discussion about your methods during class. It's important to make sure everyone is doing the same process and clarifying each step, like when Giana asked if the liquid went on the cotton ball before or after putting it in the plastic bag.

You also raised an important point about adding additional liquid as your experiment progresses. One way of thinking about this is returning to your original question. Is your question asking anything about how much liquid is necessary to sprout seeds? If it isn't, how can you make sure that your methods are consistent to test if liquids other than water sprout seeds, while also making sure that your seeds have ideal conditions to sprout?

Hi rose, today we put our bags together. I used water for one bag as our controlled and in the other bag I used seltzer water.  Bella used coffee, and Izzy used fruit punch. Izzy, Bella and I are all in the same lab. So the three of us have the same environment and same kinds of seeds. While Youbin is using milk and a controlled water bag, she has different seeds and maybe a different environment. We put the seeds inside the cotton balls, and used droplets to drop water on. The only variable we changed was what liquid we used so we will have our bags in the same place. The cotton balls didn't absorb as much liquids as we thought, should we continue to put more liquid through out the experiment?

Today which was day one in the lab I got 4 seeds, two cotton balls, 1 plastic bag, and gatorade with a dropper. I pulled the cotton balls apart slightly so that I could nest the seeds inside so they would not fall out of the cotton ball. Then I took my seeds and placed two of them in each of the cotton balls. Then I slowly folded the cotton ball on top of the seeds and used about 1/2 dropper of gatorade into each of the cotton balls making sure that the liquid was absorbed by the cotton before placing them both in the plastic bag and sealing the bag leaving a small amount of air in the bag. 

I used 3 cotton balls to soak the water and milk. On top of the milk cotton ball, I put 3 radish seeds, and in the water cotton ball, I put 3 radish seeds on top as well. Then I put each of them in the plastic bags.

I prepare 2 cottton balls that have 2 seeds insdie, then I put my liquid (coffee) to the cotton balls and put them into the plastic bags.

I also used a dropper to put my gatorade on the cotton balls, then I placed them into the bag. I tried not to soak them too much because I didn't want them to drown

I put my liquid in before I put it in the bag 

are we putting the liquid on the cotton ball before or after we put it in the bag

when we are here we are here we are just using one control for the three of us who are in class each of us in the class is testing a different liquid

we are using 4 seeds per bag putting 2 seeds in each cotton ball into the bag 

Hi rose, My name is Izzy and I am very excited to work with you on this investigation. I have 3 dogs and I am a swimmer. For the labs we are going to substitute for water different liquids. My question about the lab would be how to make sure that the plants stay warm because it is winter where we are and it will be hard to give the plants access to light without putting them near a window where they might freeze.

Hello Ms. Rose, my name is Gianna. I have 2 cats and a dog. In my free time I like to play basketball and rugby. For the lab we are using the liquids besides water on seeds. We want to see if seeds can sprout with different liquids but with light.