Aqua Ducks :)/ Woodstock High School / WSHS_S11_W60

School Level: High School
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Research Information


Research Question
How would seeds grow faster?. Would they grow on soil, water itself, or in cotton?

Research Predictions
We think that it will grow faster in cotton because, the cotton would absorb water faster, and also it sill have the water available for the seeds to germinate, unlikt thje soil and water itself. The soil would also retain water, but that water would be gone much quicker and the seeds would germinate much slower. With water itself, the seeds would have too much water, and becasuse of that the seeds would maybe die because of that much water that is in it.

Experimental Design
materials:
. 6 mungbean seeds
. soil
. water
. paper towel


placed two seeds in soil, another two in just water, and other two seeds in water with cotton. We are trying to see which seeds will grow faster. All the seeds will be inside a greenhouse.

Research Conclusions
the seeds from the soil grew a lot more than the ones from the cotton and water itself. The seeds that were with the cotton, were the ones that died, and mold grew on top of the cotton. Although the seeds in the soil grew more than the other ones, the seeds died,. We think they died becasue of the weather cahnges that have been lately, going from a warm weather, to a cold one, and going back and forth with the climate.


Conversations - use this space to communicate about this project


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April 22, 2011 | 1:26 PM | Dr. Catrina Adams

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 11, 2011 | 10:47 AM | Dr. Catrina Adams

Looks like you are in the final stages of your projects
It’s great to see that teams from your school are wrapping up and posting conclusions. Enjoy the final stages of your project, and feel free to post any final comments or questions you have for your mentors.
April 5, 2011 | 12:48 PM | Dr. Catrina Adams


Hi Team Aqua Ducks!
Sounds like you got some unexpected results, but not getting what you expected to get is often the best way to learn something new, because you have to come up with new ideas for why things went the way they did. Sounds like the plants growing in soil did better than the ones growing in cotton. Do you think growing in the soil might have protected the seeds from weather changes more than growing in the cotton or water?

Looking back, do you think the cotton held water better than the soil or not? Did you notice if the cotton or soil seemed to dry out the fastest? Sometimes it's interesting because what we think will be the case when we design an experiment (for example, that cotton will hold water better than soil) turns out not to be true when we actually set up the experiment. That can change the results but not mean that the whole idea wasn't a good one...(for example, that plants would grow best if they had more water available to them without being underwater).

Mold is also definitely a problem...it can be hard to get good results from your experiment once the seeds start to mold.

Nice job with your experiment!
March 29, 2011 | 9:47 AM | aquaducks1  (Team Member)

@ Mrs. Lauer
I just now uploaded the final presentation powerpoint.. =)
March 15, 2011 | 5:28 PM | Ms. L  (Teacher)

Experimental design & research conclusions
You have a lot to finish up here

Exp. design--list materials and steps to complete experiment
research Conclusions--explain your data and what it means to you.

Presentation--explain experiment and offer further research at the end--ppt or photostory work well
March 10, 2011 | 6:32 PM | Ms. L  (Teacher)

cotton
Research hydroponics.
Some soils are packed tight and others are loosely. Some terms for you: permeability and porosity,

Also for the experimental design, list materials, and step by step instructions.

So your idea is that the cotton will hold more water or hold water longer. Let's see what happens next:)
February 21, 2011 | 8:00 AM | Rafael de Casas  (Scientist/Mentor)

Comments on the idea
Hi,
First of all, sorry for not getting in touch with you guys before. There seems to have been some miss-communication.
Germination is a fascinating subject. Is is arguably one of the biggest life history transitions in the the whole natural world. During germination, plants go from their most resistant to their less resistant phase (seed to seedling, respectively), from being heterotrophic to being autotrophic, etc. Germination also determines the whole life of the plant. If the plant is off to a bad start and doesn't time germination right, its future is going to be difficult.
Because it is so importnat, the regulation of germiantion is very complex and nuanced. You are right in suggesting that free water is important, and that only free water will probably not be the best medium for germination. However, the reason for this is because seeds also need respire to germinate, and if they are submerged in water they can't get enough oxygen, much as oursleves. As mentioned above, seeds are heterotrophic organisms and during germination they burn their reserves to grow.
I am not sure if cotton will be better that soil, though. I guess we'll find that out once you complete the experiment ;-)
I'm looking forward seeing your ideas for experimental design. Make sure that you plan things so you can check for germination frequently, ideally no more than every 12 hours, although I understand that might be too much. Germination is a somewhat dynamic process, and it sometimes happens (it has happened to me) that everything germinates in just a day or two, so if you do not follow things closely you might miss the differences between treatments.
I have one suggestion. Germination is preceded by and dependent upon something called "imbibition" during which seeds uptake water. Your different treatments might influence this phase, which usually is completed in just a few hours. It would be interesting to quantify this. You can use a subset of the seeds, say half of them, to measure it. What I'd do is weight a certain amount of dry seeds (i.e., before any "experimental manipulation") and weight. Then put a certain number of them (20 or 30) in each of the treatments (soil, cotton and free water) and then take half of each batch of seeds (10/15 seeds per treatment) out after a few hours (something like 4 or 5) and weight them again.
If you guys want to learn more about seeds and germination this site has more information than any sane person can handle on the subject:
http://www.seedbiology.de/
Disclaimer: we scientist tend not to be sane people under most accounts.
February 15, 2011 | 11:23 AM | aquaducks1  (Team Member)


*wow..you know you get get kicked out for this??.. >=(
February 15, 2011 | 11:23 AM | aquaducks2  (Team Member)

:D
just kidding :) about the jessica thing i hope we learn alot from you and we "the aquaducks " relay appresheate your help!
February 15, 2011 | 11:19 AM | aquaducks2  (Team Member)

greedings
Hello! i am the awesome person in the middle of the pic ! :D my name is Allison and this is my First post on the Aquaducks team! (woohoo!) thankx for being our mentor! :) I hope to learn alot from you! ps: jessica is the one on theright.. shes part monkey..
February 15, 2011 | 11:14 AM | Dr. Claire Hemingway

Welcome!
I am happy to welcome you to this community of plant researchers. Your team has the opportunity to be mentored by a scientist to help you develop and perform your own research project. The mentor's role is to encourage and guide you through the scientific process of discovery. The more you share your ideas and research information online, the more your mentor can help. Have fun, and remember the entire digital world sees your work and comments.

Your scientist mentor for this project will be Dr. Rafael Rubio de Casas from NESCent.

Please introduce yourself to your mentor to get a conversation rolling and post some of your team's brainstorming ideas and interests in investigating germination.

These resources are available to help you get started:
Thinking Like a Scientist / Working Like a Scientist
Designing Experiments
Guide to Using A Spreadsheet

Best wishes as you start this scientific journey. We are all pleased to share this experience with you.
Have fun!

Sincerely,
The PlantingScience team
February 15, 2011 | 11:13 AM | aquaducks3  (Team Member)

Hola
Hello, my name is Jenna (the person on the left). I hope that me and my group will learn a lot during this experience :)
February 15, 2011 | 11:03 AM | aquaducks1  (Team Member)

Hello
Hi Mr. Rubio.. well I would like to introduce myself, by telling you a little bit of me. Well my name is Jessica, I am currently a Senior at Woodstock High School., and I am one of the menbers from the AquaDucks Team :) Well thank you so much for being our mentor, and hoope to learn from you throughout my project.. :)




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