SAE_S10_B01 :: PlantingScience.org :: fostering student research through scientific inquiry and online mentorship

Schnookemboggers/ St. Andrew`s Episcopal School / SAE_S10_B01

School Level: High School
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Research Information

Research Question
How will the amount of nutrients in the soil affect the average length of the pedicel(s)?

Research Predictions
If more Osmocote nutrient pellets are added to the soil, then the pedicels of Brassica rapa plants will be longer.

Experimental Design
IV:amount of nutrient
DV:pedicel length
EG:The Brassica rapa plant
CV:There was no controlled variable in this experiment.

Materials:
1)Osmocote nutrient pellets
2) water
3) 7 Brassica rapa “fast plant” seeds
4) lighter
5) 2 20 oz. water bottles
6) green and yellow tape
7) wick
8)plastic disc with six holes
9) perlite
10) lab notebook
11) plastic light box
12) writing utensil
13) ruler

Procedure:
Two 8 oz. water bottles were found from recycling bins lining the school sidewalk.
1. Lines were drawn in sharpie near the middle of the bottles, precisely where the neck of the bottle begins to curve inwards leading up to the cap.
2. Both water bottles were cut on the lines drawn in the previous step using an Exacto knife.
3. Holes were drilled into the cap of each bottle using a drill.
4. The tips of two wicks were burnt using a lighter.
5. After cooling, the wicks were inserted through the holes in the caps of the bottles.
6. The top halves of the bottles were then flipped upside-down and put in the bottom half of the bottles.
7. The wicks were adjusted so that the ends of each one touched the bottoms of the bottles significantly.
8. A mixture of dirt and Perlite was poured inside the top part of each bottle.
9. One bottle was labeled with a yellow piece of tape on which was written the words “low nutrients” and the initials of each person in the group.
10. One bottle was labeled with a green piece of tape on which was written the words “high nutrients” and the initials of each person in the group.
11. Six Osmocote nutrient pellets, containing nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, were placed in the low nutrients bottle.
12. Twenty-four of the same Osmocote nutrient pellets were placed in the high nutrients bottle.
13. A circular piece of plastic, which had 6 holes in it, was used to place seven (there was an extra seed put in, in case one of the plants didn’t sprout or sprouted then died) Brassica rapa seeds in the dirt-Perlite mix of each bottle.
14. Water was poured into the bottles slowly, and near the edge in order to not move the seeds around.
15. Time was given for the seeds to grow.
16. In the bottle(s) that had grown seven plants, the seventh was cut in order to have six healthy plants in each bottle.
17. The plants that had grown too close together were transplanted so that they were spread out evenly in both bottles.
18. On certain days measurements were made of the plants that were growing in the bottles. The measurements included height, cotyledon color, stem color, length of pedicel, total number of pedicels, and other observations.
19. The height was measured from the surface of the dirt-Perlite mix to the highest apex (the bulge right below the highest branching off).
20. The cotyledon color was measured/observed using “G” for the dominant green color, and “g” for the recessive yellow-green color of the cotyledons.
21. The stem color was measured/observed using “A” for the dominant purple color, and “g” for the recessive not-purple trait.
22. On the second day of measurements, each person in the group chose a plant number.
23. On every day of data-collecting from the second day onward, each person in the group drew their chosen plant for both the high and low nutrients.
24. The pictures and sketches were colored in order to be more accurate and true to the features of the plants drawn.
25. On the 26th day after planting, the pedicels of all the groups’ plants were measured. At this point in the plants’ life cycle, only some of them had flowers. The vast majority had lost all their petals and left only seed pods in their place. It was more accurate to measure the pedicels at this time because they had stopped growing and were at the height of their life. The stalks bearing a single flower were measured from the point at which they branched off up to the point of the beginning of the pod or flower. Measurements were taken in centimeters.
26. The measurements of all the pedicels on one plant were added together and divided by two (they were averaged). The averages for all the pedicels on each team’s plants were written down in a data table.

Research Conclusions
In conclusion, the hypothesis that plants in high nutrients would have longer pedicels was supported by this experiment. Table 1 shows that, on average, the high nutrient plants had pedicels that were about one millimeter longer than the low nutrient pedicels. The high nutrients caused almost all plants to grow larger than their low nutrient counterparts. Table 2 determines that only a few low nutrient plants were taller than the majority of the high nutrient plants. This shows that that the greater amount of nutrients allowed plants to grow bigger not just in height, but also in pedicel length. Perhaps the better environment created by high nutrients made much more sufficient plants overall. Though some plants may have been affected by their genotypes (the unusually large ones), this experiment showed that environment affected B. rapa’s growth just as much or more so than genetics. Both tables show that the high nutrient environment produced much larger plants overall, something that could not have been affected by genetics.

Comments

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	April 5, 2010 \| 4:19 AM \| 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. Please come back and visit the PlantingScience Research Gallery Archive anytime to view this project in the future. You can search the Archive by key word, team name, topic, or school name. Good bye for now. Warm regards, The PlantingScience team


	April 4, 2010 \| 6:20 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) Hi Guys, Sorry I did not reply before I was on spring break and went down to New Orleans. I had a great time. Good I like your conclusions. But I want to see more of an analysis about your results. Why do you think plants in higher nutrients have a longer pedicel? what advantage does that have for the plants? Why do you think some of the plants growing in lower nutrient environments were taller? Some questions to think about, Tatiana


	March 31, 2010 \| 11:01 AM \| buckykatt (Team Member) Forgot to mention this, Our results were surprising Ms. Arias, check out the conclusion if you have time. -Hugo


	March 31, 2010 \| 10:59 AM \| Hugo (Team Member) Dear Ms. Arias, just uploaded our experimental design and conclusion, hope you enjoy it.


	March 23, 2010 \| 10:46 PM \| Lila (Team Member) Hey Ms. Arias, I think we can figure out the graphs, but if not we will let you know! Do you have any presentation ideas? -Lila


	March 23, 2010 \| 7:04 AM \| Hugo (Team Member) Update Hey Ms. Arias, We are seeing significant growth in our plants after the break and our plants have finally grown pods. Most of our flowers have served their purpose and are now dying away. We are beginning to write individual lab reports and shall be doing a group lab report. I hope our research merits an interesting discovery. -Hugo


	March 23, 2010 \| 6:13 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) I was not sure about measuring the pedicel but I thought it would be good to see if there was any variation. Sometimes it is good to experiment with things that are not as obvious (that's what science is!!). You can look at the help in microsoft excel and maybe try to figure out how to make graphics (or ask someone), otherwise send me the excel table and I will make the graphic for you ;) T


	March 23, 2010 \| 3:47 AM \| Lila (Team Member) Hey Ms. Arias, So we should make visual graphs from the data we have? Also, we have decided to change our Research Question because we have decided not to study the number of pedicels. Now we will only be studying the average of the lengths of the plants. Also, we are going to present this in about a week, and so we will need to keep it interesting. I was wondering if you had any suggestions? -Lila


	March 23, 2010 \| 1:54 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) Once you have collected your data, you need to think about an easy way to analyze them. For example if you collected your data in excel you could make a graphic with this table to better see visualize your data. Clear? T


	March 22, 2010 \| 11:21 AM \| Erica (Team Member) Hello HI Ms. Arias! Yes I agree with Kevin. Could you explain to us what the data analysis is? We started to take pedicel measurements (length and number). We will also be taking other teams' pedicel measurements. So far I have noticed that mostly our hypothesis might be correct. Im excited to see what the final result is. And Ohh Kevin. Thanks, Erica


	March 22, 2010 \| 10:13 AM \| Lila (Team Member) Dear Kevin, I think you meant to say "pea." Heh. I still love you though.


	March 22, 2010 \| 8:11 AM \| Kevin (Team Member) Hello! Um, unsure of what you meant when you asked whether or not we have thought about our data analysis, i am going to answer with my understanding of the question. When measuring height of the plant, the results lean to the reasonable conclusion that the plants growing in soil with high nutrients grow taller and healthier, flowering and creating pee pods earlier. The nutrients seem to speed up the life process of the plants. Regarding the pedicel height and number, we have not yet taken enough data to recognize a trend. Kevin


	March 22, 2010 \| 7:57 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) Excellent! Have you thought about the data analysis yet?


	March 21, 2010 \| 11:17 PM \| Lila (Team Member) Hey Ms. Arias, We just started measuring pedicels today. We have decided to average for the individual plants. We are useing cm and this is turning out pretty well, I think! Thanks a lot, Lila


	March 9, 2010 \| 12:09 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) Great!, Sorry it took me so long but my computer crash and I don't have access to the internet as often. I am hoping to fix this problem soon. Remember to make your measurements in cm instead of inches (we use the metric system in science). Tatiana


	March 8, 2010 \| 10:33 AM \| Hugo (Team Member) Checking up Dear Arias, We recently began taking measurements of our plants. Significant growth is visible in our plants and small flower buds have formed. We are near to being finished with our procedure as well. Talk to you soon, -Hugo


	March 8, 2010 \| 9:56 AM \| Erica (Team Member) Hi Tatiana, So we've started taking down measurements and things, which is pretty fun to do. The plants are starting to produce buds and I cannot wait to measure to height and amount of pedicels. We are a little over half way done with our experimental design. A pedicel is a "branch" connecting a flower to a stem while a peduncle is a "branch" from a leaf to a stem. And one plant has way more than one pedicel on a plant. -Erica


	March 8, 2010 \| 8:30 AM \| Lila (Team Member) Hey Ms. Arias, Like Kevin said, we just took more data down today. One thing that is pretty cool is that the buds are starting to form, and it is cool to see them sprout. -Lila


	March 8, 2010 \| 6:49 AM \| Kevin (Team Member) Updates Today we recorded more data on our plants. They have grown to be pretty big pretty quickly, but a lot of them can't stand up straight. What we decided to do is stick toothpicks in the soil and tie them to the toothpicks. We have started working on our procedure and are going to finish it tonight. None of our plants have pedicels yet (well, at least not ones that are worth noting). So we just continue to take the required data for the class. Kevin


	March 4, 2010 \| 3:58 AM \| Lila (Team Member) Answer Hey, The pedicels will be affected by the nutrients becuase the nutrients increase growth in the whole plant. So, just like everything else, the pedicels will be affected. The plants have not reached the time of growth for the pedicels yet. A peduncle is the part of the plant that connects the leaves to the main stem, a pedicel only connects the flowers. Thanks, The Team


	March 3, 2010 \| 8:31 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) question So guys, why do you think the pedicel(s) will be affected by the nutrients in the soil? does this plants have more than one pedicel? what is the different between pedicel and peduncle? Just a little homework! T


	March 3, 2010 \| 12:21 AM \| Alexa (Student, Monster Plants - ECH_S10_W02 · -1) belt buckle what is it?


	March 2, 2010 \| 10:41 PM \| buckykatt (Team Member) beltbuckle thanks, that's mine


	February 28, 2010 \| 11:57 PM \| Alexa (Student, Monster Plants - ECH_S10_W02 · -1) dude** We figured the seeds wouldn't grow as fast in alcohol but would become stronger.


	February 28, 2010 \| 11:54 PM \| silverstein313 (Student, Monster Plants - ECH_S10_W02 · -1) Hi! I love your belt buckle(the dud standing up!)


	February 28, 2010 \| 9:17 AM \| buckykatt (Team Member) Dear Ms.Arias Thank you so much for the wonderful advice concerning the project. Though I believe we have decided upon a variable to research, our ideas may change as time passes. I, as well as Lila, wondered how many and if we should study multiple variables. Kevin's response pretty much sums up what we are doing this weekend and I am sure more work will be in progress tomorrow (at least knowing Ms. Tucker). I am very sorry my response was posted so late, moving has kept me busy all weekend. Once again, I am extremely grateful for all the help you have give us, it has really made a difference. I am sure I will be commenting again soon and I want to reinforce it was not I who chose the team name. Sincerely, Hugo


	February 28, 2010 \| 6:49 AM \| Erica (Team Member) Sorry Ms. Tatiana -Erica


	February 28, 2010 \| 1:58 AM \| Erica (Team Member) Mr. Tatiana Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I like the idea of seeing how many seedlings will contain hairs. The suggestions you made do make sense, and I'm sure that we will take all of those into heart when we decide upon something later today for what our research question will be. -Erica


	February 28, 2010 \| 1:16 AM \| Lila (Team Member) Dear Ms. Arias, What you said is very helpful! Thank you! We only have a limited time in class (and sometimes during free periods) in which we can look at the variables, but I do know that it would be best to look at as many variable as possible. So around how many variables would you suggest to look at? -Lila


	February 26, 2010 \| 8:31 AM \| Kevin (Team Member) Dear Tatiana, Thank you for all your examples and suggestions. They are very helpful. In response to your question, yes! this makes a lot of sense and definitely gives us more ideas. Our homework for this weekend is to post a research question and to begin thinking about our predictions. We will post it as soon as we have a chance to communicate and decide on something. Thank you so much for all your support and ideas! It is very helpful. -Kevin


	February 25, 2010 \| 11:42 PM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) Ideas-Suggestions Hi Guys, It looks like you have been working a lot in the project and taking good care of your plants. I think that for the stage you are at the variables you are looking at are perfect. Size is important to determine the morphological variation among plants (as I understand you are looking at plants growing in poor nutrients soil environment vs rich environment). So you can divide the size in many variables: total size, main root size, stem size (these are quantitative traits). Do this seedlings have hairs? You can also estimate if the hair is abundant vs scarce or you can make discrete categories and then look at every single of your plants and classify them (does this make sense?). Color is good! take good notes (it is a discrete or qualitative trait and later on you won't be able to use to calculate a variance). Now, when your plants start producing leaves you can measure leaf number, leaf size (width and length), leaf hair abundance, distance between leaves (this is call an internode). After the plants start flowering you can measure many things the length of the inflorescence (the structure I think you are talking about which is the group of flowers in the plant), number of flowers, flower size. Does this help or you want me to be more specific? Let me know the variables you will be measuring and then we can talk about variance. Tatiana PS: why don't you complete the research questions and predictions? have you talk about this already? I paste a two files showing the plant parts and also some examples of inflorescences


	February 25, 2010 \| 11:14 AM \| Erica (Team Member) Dear Tatiana Today we talked about dependent variables and independent variables. We also looked at the minor growth of seedlings in a petri dish with water, and practiced taking down information and looking at which traits are dominant... like how the color purple is dominant over yellow/green. I think, for our project, a couple of intersting variables would be the color of the plant or days of flowering. The colors would be so interesting because of the variety and and how the genes expressed are continous or not... I dont the answer to that, but we can find that out. -Erica


	February 25, 2010 \| 11:11 AM \| Lila (Team Member) Dependent Variable Hi Ms. Arias, As Kevin has already stated, I was thinking about studying the length and number of the part of the plant that connects the flower or pod to the main stem. I think that it would be interesting to try and find out whether this can be controlled by the addition of nutrients versus not so many. Does that make sense and seem like a good idea? -Lila


	February 25, 2010 \| 11:09 AM \| Kevin (Team Member) Dear Tatiana Today we were thinking about what our dependent variable should be for our experiment. Although some of the things listed as examples by our teacher would be cool, we came up with a different idea. We noticed that in most plants there is a part of the plant that branches off from the stem and leads up to a flower pod, and we decided that it would be interesting to see if the length of this part of the plant is affected by the nutrients in the soil and if so, how? -Kevin


	February 25, 2010 \| 12:41 AM \| Hugo (Team Member) Observations Dear Tatiana, We just finished planting our seeds in high and low nutrient areas. We also looked at our seedlings minor growth in the petri dish yesterday. It was interesting and there was a surprising amount of growth for just one day. Though we are aware of many of the different variances in plants, there are many things we have not yet learned. Also, how do you find a certain percentage of variance. -Thanks, Hugo


	February 24, 2010 \| 10:36 PM \| Kevin (Team Member) Dear Tatiana I was just wondering what type of things we could measure or observe in a population of plants. I know there are the basics like size of the root, color, etc. But i know there is a lot more variance between plants in a population than just these things, and i was wondering what are examples of some things people use to measure variance that aren't so common and basic as size and color?


	February 24, 2010 \| 9:38 AM \| Erica (Team Member) Dear Tatiana Today we just looked at our plants in the first stage of a petri dish. It was pretty cool to look at. We need to look at the small differences in each seedling, so we can measure the varience of the population of plants. There are so many things that I think that we can look at, color, size (seed itse;f, root, stem etc) what it looks like etc... - Erica


	February 24, 2010 \| 9:04 AM \| Lila (Team Member) Population and observavtion Hey Ms. Arias, Today was our first day to observe our seedlings after 24 hours. The growth was visible but minor. One thing I did encounter while taking notes and observing was that I don’t quite understand how to discern between items- or seeds- that are not the biggest or darkest in color. I guess my question would be just that I am wondering what you might need to know and be careful to observe about a plant or seed besides color and size? Because I know that once we get into the more complicated things and looking at the whole population that we are going to need more than those characteristics to look at and realize what importance they hold. -Lila


	February 24, 2010 \| 8:59 AM \| Kevin (Team Member) update response Dear Tatiana, We have just finished planting the seeds in the soil of our plastic bottles and today we observed the germinating seeds we put in the petri dishes yesterday. We recorded all of our data in our lab notebooks. -Kevin


	February 23, 2010 \| 8:08 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) update I would like to know what phase of the project are you at right now?


	February 22, 2010 \| 10:37 PM \| MaryBeth (Student, Pink Petals - SSS_S10_W10 · -1) cool pic!!!!!


	February 18, 2010 \| 9:09 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) Hi Lila, Kevin and the rest f you, Nice picture! I was really happy to hear about of you and you have really awesome and interesting lives. I can tell you I came from Medellin Colombia (south America) several years ago and have been doing science in particular plant science for quite a while. I love plants!!!! I love teaching and I love going to the field to look for plants. This summer I am planning a field season in Spain collecting plants from the mustard family, right now I spend all my time looking for money to get to do this. I think you should not be scared or bored about science. Because science is really fun, as I tell to my students here in Missouri: there is nothing more beautiful that to understand how nature works. It connects us to where we came from. So I look forward to work with you and feel free to ask anything you want. Tatiana


	February 18, 2010 \| 4:08 AM \| karms (Team Member) Hello!!! Dear Ms. Arias, My name is Kevin and I am fourteen. My favorite topic in science is general human anatomy and brain function. The way the brain works and what causes mental illnesses or the way a mentally handicapped person’s brain works fascinates me. There’s not much that fascinates me about plants, but one thing is the way certain plants work, such as how Venus fly traps know when a fly is near. I like to play soccer and watch TV shows like House. What about you? Sincerely, Kevin


	February 18, 2010 \| 4:08 AM \| Lila (Team Member) Hello from Lila Dear Ms. Arias, Hi! My name is Lila. I am 15 years old. I am so glad that you are going to be helping us out. We will be posting a picture soon. I am interested in musical theatre, and I love to sing! Do you have any interesting hobbies? Having to do with plants, I enjoy the anatomy of flowers, but science in general is quite difficult for me. I am hoping to enjoy this project and am very glad to have you working with us! Sincerely, Lila


	February 18, 2010 \| 4:08 AM \| Erica (Team Member) Dear Ms. Tatiana, It is so nice to meet you. We will soon be putting up a team photo and team name. I’m 15 and I’m interested in DNA and Atmospheric Science. My hobbies are a little more art intensive. I sing in choir, both school and another one outside of school. I also am really into musical theatre and was just recently in the musical called Les Mis. What are you studying, and what do you do in your free time? Sincerely, Erica


	February 18, 2010 \| 4:07 AM \| Hugo (Team Member) Hi Tatiana Hi Ms. Arias, My name is Hugo and I look forward to working on this project. I’m fifteen years old and find plants to be extremely interesting in the way that they fuel all of life. I enjoy trail running and often see different kinds of plants (when I’m not too tired). I hope we create an interesting line of plants that is extremely productive. I also play lacrosse, enjoy reading and fishing, and study Chinese. I hope we enjoy working together on this project.


	February 18, 2010 \| 12:37 AM \| Tatiana Arias (Scientist/Mentor) Hi My name is Tatiana and I am looking forward to hear from you. Do you have a picture of your team? and also a name?


	February 17, 2010 \| 4:13 AM \| Welcome to PlantingScience! Hello, I'm happy to introduce you to your scientist mentor for the genetics project. Please meet M. S. Tatiana Arias of University of Missouri. Your mentor will help your team think through your team findings and class data. We all look forward to seeing what you discover about traits in the population of Brassica you study throughout their life cycle. Sharing ideas and observations is a huge part of science. We hope you enjoy this opportunity to talk online with your mentor during this extended inquiry. All best wishes on this scientific journey. Regards, The PlantingScience Team


	February 16, 2010 \| 11:08 PM \| Lila (Team Member) Best team ever. Hello team, we are the best!