Conversations - use this space to communicate about this project
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May 11, 2012 | 12:10 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Debriefing and Thanks Well, this is team leader, Daniel, with team Yum Yum Lettuce. Now after going over everything, we have proved our alternative hypothesis where there is a significant difference, the foil being better than the lettuce. Also, I wanted to point out how in comparison to the control group, there was no significant difference, however comparing the Aluminum foil and Black environments, there was a significant difference. How cool is that?! Anyway, I just wanted to post thanks to my mentors, and every one of my team members, we did an amazing job, I am proud of the work we did and it was wonderful working with the plantingscience program. Thank you so much for giving us this chance to experiment and express our ideas through science! -Team Leader C-2, Daniel |
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April 26, 2012 | 7:15 AM |
Dr. Catrina Adams
Thanks for the update Sounds like things are going well. We look forward to reading your final report! |
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April 24, 2012 | 2:15 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
UPDATE Hello everyone! I am updating the current status of Team Yum Yum Lettuce! Now on Monday we harvested half of the plants, the first half was done last Friday, the second on Monday. Also we weighed them and have begun writing our Final Report! Furthermore, we saw that our research hypothesis was right, the aluminum foil worked far better with the plants being more than about 3 grams than any other plant. That's really all that's new, nothing else has truthfully occurred. The Black environment was the lowest and the control scored second on the weight scale. All of our expectations were truly met! |
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April 19, 2012 | 7:59 AM |
Dr. Catrina Adams
Update? Hi Team Yum Yum Lettuce, Thanks for the pictures. Do you have an update on how things are progressing? Are the aluminum foil plants still looking like they are growing a bit better than the control? |
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April 7, 2012 | 5:45 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Pictures We aren't going to be measuring plant height due to the fact that we want only one dependent variable, the plants biomass, and photos of the plants will be up tonight, unfortunately one of our team members went on vacation so we only have photos of plants at week 2, that team member will get them up as soon as he gets back. As for what we think will happen, well we believe that the aluminum foil environment will work best as the light reflects and hits back at the plants and also the heat is stored within the environment giving it a temperature advantage, however for now all the plants are showing stable growth with our aluminum plants in the lead visually by a little against the control group. Thanks for your questions and any recommendations are welcome as well, it's always best to take advice from the mentor, Team Leader- Daniel |
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April 5, 2012 | 5:24 PM |
Christos Noutsos
(Scientist/Mentor)
nice work team!! Could please provide some pictures/videos of the plants? Do you have any measurements for your plants? I would like to see also youre search questions and what do you think will happen. |
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April 4, 2012 | 5:03 AM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Plant Progress This is Daniel, team leader of Team C2. I am updating the status of our plants. In the past two weeks we replanted our plants and adopted a bottom watering technique that is providing to be very formidable especially since our growth has doubled since we replanted. The original watering technique caused the plants to dry up quickly however, the bottom watering technique is much easier because we just need to re-water once every week. Overall the progress has accelerated by next week we believe we will be at the same level of plant growth we were with our past experiment. |
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March 30, 2012 | 12:32 PM |
Elena J Batista
(Scientist/Mentor)
Hi Team, Any luck with those plants? -Elena |
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March 19, 2012 | 9:14 AM |
Christos Noutsos
(Scientist/Mentor)
watirng ideas Hi team!! I am really happy that you are trying to investigate the problems you have. This is how it goes with research, solving problems!! According to my experience, watering from the bottom is the best way because plants absorb the amount of water they need. Of course, you need to be careful not to pure too much water. I guess once every 2-3 days should be more than enough. The amount of water, well that depends on the number of plants the age and the kind of plants you have. Try searching online on the amount of water your plants need. I hope that helps |
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March 16, 2012 | 6:34 AM |
ditto101
(Team Member)
Another Update Hi Mr. Noutsos, I'm Sean, and I'm posting on behalf of all the members of our team (Dan, Carly, Matt, Jack, and I), although we are all near the computer. As of today, we have learned that our tinfoil dome was causing the lettuce and soil to dry up. As a result of this, moisture was collecting in the bottom of this dome and algae formed. However, when the plants started dying the plants in the tinfoil dome lasted longer than the other plants. We have encountered a few problems. As of now, all of the plants have died. Due to a combination of things, such as not being able to get into the research lab for a week, we are going to have to regrow our plants. Due to the schedule we have been unable to fully reset our experiment and just need to replant the seeds (after cleaning dried algae off the bottom of one dome and putting soil in the planters). You can help us by providing ideas to help us deal with watering our plants. Currently we are thinking about doing bottom watering at Mr. Roche's suggestion. We are going to start taking pictures every week and plan to weigh the biomass of our lettuce plants from the end of April to early May. We will post pictures and data at our earliest convenience. We hope to share our pictures with you as soon as possible! ~Sean |
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February 27, 2012 | 5:29 AM |
Christos Noutsos
(Scientist/Mentor)
nice summary Hallo dahaos, I enjoyed reading your summary so far! Well structured, capturing all the points someone would need to understand what you are doing. Can you please let me know on the plant species you are using for this experiment? In addition how many plants per different treatment do you have? Some suggestions: to follow your descriptions, I like to see pictures from your plants, if you think you can make a video that would be great!! I saw on the notes you will do some statistical analysis, can you please let me know what it would be? thanks! enjoy your week!! |
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February 25, 2012 | 10:51 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Welcome to the team! Hello Mr Noutsos, My name is Daniel and I am the team leader of team C2 in High Technology High Schools Plantingscience Program. I am commenting in order to inform you about the current experiment our team is conducting. In our preliminary designs, we were planning to test how certain environmental Domes effect a plants biomass. We were going to make three domes with our control (clear dome), black construction paper dome, and our Aluminum foil dome. However, at the last second we saw that we would be unable to get the domes in time so instead we used three equal sized fish tanks with plastic lids that have a hole in the top in order for our Fluorescent bulbs to be put in place. The bulbs are set on a timer so that they will shut off and come on at the same time and the plants are watered by a weekly schedule of Monday through Friday by each member of the team with each plant received exactly three seconds of watering so it all stays equal. Originally, the team had another member, however under certain circumstances he was put in a different team in order to help them. Now the current progress of the plants is actually moving in favor of our Alternative Hypothesis. The team had thought that a foil environment would be best because of reflected light. At first it didn't. The dome would be very hot and damp with no plant growth while our Control group flourished and the black group had just begun sprouting. Now it wasn't until two to three weeks ago that a drastic growing period began for the aluminum environment where it caught up with our control groups status. All of our findings are logged in a notebook day by day in order for us to keep track of changes in our plants. Also, we noticed that the texture of the plants was different, the control and black environments seemed to be much darker in color and smoother in texture while the aluminum has light colored plants that feel sort of strange to the touch. Almost as if it had very tiny bristles on the leaves. Unfortunately, the current status of the plants is bad. Since we weren't able to enter the lab for a couple days because there was no adult there, we missed out on a couple days of watering which led to the plants wilting and some dieing. So now, we are considering restarting the experiment, our teachers say it's possible and we were thinking of bottom water the plants from now on to make them easier to maintain. So all in all, that is our experiment and how we are doing so far, if you have any questions feel free to ask and the other team members will probably be introducing themselves soon so you will get to know them as well. We hope you enjoy this experience as much as we will! -Daniel Team C-2 |
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November 10, 2011 | 12:29 PM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
You're welcome and farewell! No problem, it was great working with you guys! You guys are very creative and bright. Good luck on your experiment! |
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November 9, 2011 | 8:15 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
THANKS! Mrs. Terauchi, thank you so much for all your insight, i apologize for being the last to comment but your insight and ideas truly led to the great upheaval of our experiment. You helped us structure our ideas so they were logical and you listened to us even when some of our ideas were outrageous. Thank you so much for this experience, hope to work with you AGAIN! -Daniel |
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November 9, 2011 | 12:29 PM |
ditto101
(Team Member)
Thank you! Thanks so much Dr. Terauchi! You were very helpful towards preparing our group for this experiment, and we'd like to thank you for all of the information and support! Thanks a lot! ~Sean |
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November 9, 2011 | 12:17 PM |
carlycat
(Team Member)
Goodbye, Dr. Aimee Terauchi! Thank you so much, Aimee, for helping us prepare our experiment! You gave incredible insight and helped lead us to an experiment that will work effectively. I know this preparation will be helpful for my teammates and I in not only this experiments, but others as well. -Carly |
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November 9, 2011 | 8:33 AM |
foermatt
(Team Member)
Goodbye! Goodbye Dr. Aimee Terauchi! This experiment preparation has been great and I thank you for overseeing it. In the future when we actually conduct the experiment, I am sure we will be successful. I will not soon forget the this experiment and it was so much better with your assistance. Thanks again, Matt |
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November 9, 2011 | 3:00 AM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
Bye we will miss you Goodbye Sr. Aimee Teruachi and thank you for everything. I honestly believe that without you we wouldn't have come upon what we did. This experience was definitely not what i expected and i'm glad it wasn't. |
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November 7, 2011 | 3:29 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. We're excited to see how these project proposals are carried out in the spring session! 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 |
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November 5, 2011 | 8:46 AM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Hypothesis First off, thank you Aimee for all of your help throughout this process. The hypothesis we have is something like this: If we use different domes to control the direction in which light hits plants, then we think the tin foil dome will work best. I think what is confusing is the dome part. Imagine a structure shaped like a dome. On top, there is an opening for light. Inside the dome, it is curved. We plan to put tinfoil, black material, and us a control. I think the control is no dome at all. So, we would tape/glue tinfoil on the inside of the dome. Then, the light on top would hit the tinfoil. The tinfoil, being reflective, will reflect light on the plant. To measure how well this works, we will measure the biomass of plants. |
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November 4, 2011 | 1:28 PM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
More question and hypothesis development I think that there were a lot of good ideas floating around, I have to admit I am a little confused by the experiment you have settled on. It seems like we started thinking about experimental design to address a different question (the effect of different colors of light), and now the experimental design has sort of become the question. I think we should work on developing the question being asked and hypothesis a bit more. Why do you think tinfoil will work best? I presume it is because you think with tinfoil there will be more light? Then the question you are really asking is not "Effect of dome type on lettuce growth" but "what is the effect of light on lettuce growth", no? |
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November 2, 2011 | 6:12 PM |
Elena J Batista
(Scientist/Mentor)
from Mr Roche to Mentors: Mentors - Thank you for all of your time and effort in getting my student teams to this point. All teams have submitted experimental design diagrams that propose studies that I would like to have them conduct starting in January. Some of the teams are still finalizing details within the experimental designs. I have communicated my concerns to each team. Any assistance that you can provide with helping them address those concerns will be greatly appreciated. Following our December holidays, laboratory space will free up in our research lab and I am hoping that each team will be able to conduct their proposed study in the new year. Between now and then, the teams will be developing full proposals according to the outline below. Final Product for Introduction to Research A paper summarizing your research proposal will be the final end product for this course. There are five sections required for the paper as detailed below: Introduction: Rationale Objective(s) for the study Assumptions (if any) Hypotheses: Alternate Null Methodology: Experimental Design Diagram Materials required Time / space required Detailed, numbered, step-by-step procedure Graphics & illustrations (if appropriate) Proposed Analysis of Findings: Nature of observations Data tables to be utilized Proposed statistical analysis Bibliography: Five references (minimum) Full bibliographic citations for each Summary of how each is related to your project (minimum 1 paragraph per reference) This is the outline that all of our freshman students follow as they propose individual research projects within our Intro to Research and Data Analysis 1 mini-courses. This team experience with plantingscience.org is serving as a great example as to the type of project we are expecting of our students with respect to their individual research requirements here at HTHS. Again, I would like to thank you for all of the thoughtful questions and guidance that you shared with the teams. I’m not sure if we will be able to re-connect with you in the Spring, but I am going to ask Claire and Catrina if it might be possible to reunite teams and mentors, so that the students may communicate the results of their experiments with those of you who helped shape them. Thank you for all of your help with this rather unique use of the plantingscience.org resources. Finally – I am anticipating that all students will complete the post testing on Wednesday, November 9th. -Mike- |
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October 26, 2011 | 1:40 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Posts this week Mrs. Terauchi, this week please do not expect posts from our team, it's a big testing week at High Tech and most of us will be unavailable, also with our experimental design diagram, there was a mistake in the diagram. What we plan to do is build an environmental dome to house plants and allow them to be exposed to a specific light which will be inserted from the light entrance in the top of the dome; however, the materials for the dome will change so we could see the effects of different materials on plant growth. Also the hypothesis is a little unexplained as well, we believe that a dome with an inner layer of tin foil will make the plant grow the best. To conclude, posting will be at a minimum from us this week and our experiment is to see the effect of different environmental domes on the growth of the lettuce. -Daniel (Team C-2 Leader) |
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October 21, 2011 | 12:34 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Experimental Design Diagram Title: Effect of dome types on the biomass of lettuce Hypothesis: We think the tin foil dome will make the largest difference. Independent Variable Dome Type Levels Tinfoil Black Control Trials 12 12 12 Dep. Variable: Biomass of plants Op. Definition: Biomass of plants will be measured in grams Constants - Light source - Water amount and type - Soil Type - Temperature |
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October 20, 2011 | 8:06 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Our progression Hello! After severe contemplation over the week, I see that our team has been enormously contributing on planting science, may say I'm proud that everyone has really begun to take the initiative! Like my peers I would also like to post some of my favorite ideas for our experiments, because slowly I see that we have begun to enter the beginning stages of hypothesis due to major progression! The ideas that appeal to me are: - A dome that will contain the light which our plants will be exposed to -Different soil and liquids, I'm more interested in the liquid, I would love to see how the different vitamins and chemicals effect the growth of the plant. (Love the Redbull idea Dr. Terauchi; although I would use Monster, I think the effects of it will be much different from Redbull.) Also we could use sport enhancers like Muscle Milk to give protein to the plants. -As for fertilizers, until this week I wasn't exactly aware that there was more types of fertilizers, I plan to do more research to see which works best because if we could actually use the most preferred and mix it with perhaps Redbull or other sport enhancers than we could see a really amazing results. For now I can only contemplate the results, and I also have a question about liquids, would using a specific type of liquid (let’s say Gatorade or O.J.), will it cause the flavor of the lettuce to change? Will it be sweet or perhaps energy filled? Or will there be no change? Hopefully our experiment answers these questions! |
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October 20, 2011 | 8:00 PM |
ditto101
(Team Member)
Favorite Ideas 1. Does the type of water used on the plant affect its biomass after ____ months? 2. Will the plant's growth (or biomass) show a change if a limited amount of carbon dioxide is given to the plant? 3. Do different types of liquids with certain acidity/basicity affect the amount of oxygen produced by the plant? For #3, what I'm trying to describe is this: We have, say water, a control liquid. We know the pH of pure water is 7 because it's neither acidic or basic. Now, we could have an experimental plant with its water at a pH of 6 by adding an acid to it. This works because when you add an acid to something, it becomes more acidic, and when you add a base to something, it becomes more basic.* We could have another one at 4 or 3, and then maybe one at 8 and another at 10 or 11 so we can test varying basicity and acidity of water. *For example, Hydrochloric acid is an acid. If you added it to pure water, the solution would be more acidic. Same for Sodium Hydroxide, it's a base. If you added that to pure water, the solution would become more basic. |
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October 20, 2011 | 1:05 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
I can't believe I'm saying this @Dr. Aimee Terauchi the thing about Vitamin C is that it is an acid based product with at least 8 enzymatic reactions so it does contribute to the acidity of the OJ. |
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October 20, 2011 | 7:16 AM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
something to think about @carlycat, excellent job on phrasing the experiment as a question! I hope we can start thinking about hypotheses in this way. This is how scientists think. They think of a question (also known as a hypothesis) first and then think of an experiment to test their hypothesis. Ideally, the experiment would have only one variable (the variable you wish to test), so that you can conclude that your result is due to the variable which you changed. I think it would be interesting to see how different liquids such as O.J. and Red Bull affect lettuce growth, but keep in mind that there are many variables in such an experiment. So say if orange juice turned out to be best, you would not be able to definitively say why it was better. Was it the acidity of orange juice? Was it the high Vitamin C content? |
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October 20, 2011 | 6:19 AM |
foermatt
(Team Member)
My Ideas Hello everyone, At this time, I think it will be best to post our favorite ideas, like many of you guys have. Good job. My favorite is still the light dome that Dan came up with, but I have other favorites too. 1. The light dome we will construct to focus light 2. The different types of liquids we could feed the plant to see what results we get. 3. And I also like the idea of limiting parts of the plant. For #3, I think it could work if we limited a variety of things. My favorite being the pot size of the plant would be cool, but water, light, and maybe even the temperature may have an interesting turnout in the end. |
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October 19, 2011 | 6:21 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Ideas Hi everyone, I like jackhths's idea of posting our favorite ideas. In addition to that, I think we should post why we think that idea is important. Carlcat's idea of putting them in question form is also good. In no particular order, here are my favorite three: 1. What will the effect of liquids other than water be on the biomass of lettuce? 2. What will the effect of different types of water be on the biomass of lettuce? 3. What will the effect of black paper be on the biomass of lettuce? For #3, I am suggesting that we can tape a black piece of construction paper on part of the plant. We learned that this will reflect the light, but will it affect the biomass of the lettuce? |
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October 19, 2011 | 6:03 PM |
carlycat
(Team Member)
Light, Potting, and Domes - Oh My! Following Jack, I'll post some of my favourite experiment ideas: -Would different types of water (tap, distilled, or salt) affect how lettuce grows? -Do different amounts of nutrients/fertilizers affect lettuce growth? -Would liquids other than water (O.J., Red Bull, etc.) affect how lettuce grows? Jack and I both agree on two ideas, but I'd like to hear from the others as well! Also, could we restate the ideas in questions? (Just when you type your favourites - you don't need to retype Jack's whole comment.) This would make things easier when it comes time to type our report. -Carly |
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October 19, 2011 | 1:47 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
My thoughts So to see if i can get the gears turning a bit i think my top three experiments are: 1.Using different amounts of nutrients or fertilizers 2.Using variable sized pots or containers to restrict the size the play has to grow 3.Different types of liquids such as orange juice, red bull, etc. instead of water |
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October 17, 2011 | 7:18 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
Well Let's get thinking. So now that we have pretty much dismissed the idea of using light let's pick which one we want to do. @dahaos don't throw your ideas out we can just modify your planter design and then use it. The ideas are as follows: -Using variable wavelengths for different types of light -Using refracted or reflected light -Using different intensities of light on the the plant -Using different amounts of nutrients or fertilizers -Using variable sized pots or containers to restrict the size the play has to grow -Using a tilt on the plant to see affect on flowers and/or plant -Using temperature (like if heat or chilliness will affect the plant) -Using a variable amount of water for the plant -tap water, distilled water, and salt water -Different types of soil. -Food coloring in water (Red, blue, green). -Different types of liquids such as orange juice, red bull, etc. instead of water -design of the dome |
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October 14, 2011 | 12:07 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Experimental Ideas Hello once again! This Wednesday our team presented our projects to our science teacher and we of course ended up choosing light as a main subject, however, after viewing our teams previous comments I see that new ideas have erupted from our minds. Mychael's ideas of using different types of water are great, plus with some adjustments to the dome design we could create a specific area to dispense the right amount of water on manual command. The dome was meant to enclose the plant in a circular type of object which was laced with reflective materials inside of it so all the light would be able to enter. The hole in the top would have to be fitted so the light source can fit perfectly inside without having any of the light escape from the dome. I'm glad to see more people contributing on planting science as well I think everyone is really giving their all for the team! -Daniel |
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October 13, 2011 | 5:40 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Experimental Ideas Hi everyone, I got another idea since the color one won't really work now... If we grow the organic lettuce plant with tap water, distilled water, and salt water; which will work the best? Some background information I know is that distilled water and tap water differ. I believe distilled water doesn't have as many minerals, but I'm not sure about that part. Salt water has salt. We could test these to see which grows best. Then, we can measure the growth by measuring the biomass of the plants in grams. We can weigh the pot with nothing in it. We can then weigh the soil. When we go to measure, we can weigh the pot with the plant in it, and subtract the two numbers we got originally. We could do this experiment easily, the means of measuring it are easy, and, in my opinion, it is interesting! Thoughts? |
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October 13, 2011 | 4:28 PM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
Experiment ideas @jackhths, very good, apparently you already knew the answer to the question we were asking with the colored-light experiment! So I guess that might not be too fun.... @mychael, what do you think? @everyone, when you think of experiment ideas, let's try to phrase it as a question. For instance, instead of "using different intensities of light on the plant", it is better to say, "What is the effect of different light intensities on the plant?" @ditto101 - some comments on the ideas you posted: -color spectrum and wavelengths of light are basically the same thing. -I'm not understanding the question behind the refracted/reflected light idea. -Different intensities of light is a possibility, but keep in mind you will need very bright lights to achieve "high light". (think of how bright the sun is). You will also need a way to measure the light intensity. -Different amount of nutrients is a possibility, but it would be best to change only one nutrient so that we have only one variable. -Variable sized pots --interesting but I don't know too much about this. -Using tilt on the plant --I think this could be interesting, we know that plants move and sense gravity. -Temperature --could be hard to control in the classroom, no? -Varying water --we know that too little or too much water can be bad, so are you trying to find the optimal amount of water to give them? |
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October 13, 2011 | 12:43 PM |
foermatt
(Team Member)
Experiment Hey guys. Wednesday, we had a discussion on what we might do for our project. Dan presented a sketch of a dome-shaped design that would only let light in directly above the plant. I think this design will work great. Instead of changing the variable of light for this experiment, we could change the design of the dome. Dependign on what level of detail we want to get to, we could build multiple different domes (or maybe different shapes) and change their material. We should start with one plant as a constant of course but we could have one dome be made of plastic so some light gets in on the edges but it has a direct beam at the plant. Another dome we could cover with a blanket or something thick so no light gets in unless it is through the hole. Also we could cover one dome in tin foil so it cannot get to the plant unless it is through the hole. Once it is in the hole however it will reflect off of the plant and hit the tin foil on the inside. Maybe this will change something in our results. Anyway, thats just an idea, I would love to hear some other ideas for the experiment in additon to the ones already posted! |
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October 13, 2011 | 12:27 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Experimental Design Hi everyone, @Jackhths, the reason why we would test colors such as green is because we don't know which they can grow with. What if it is different for lettuce? For all plants, I believe they grow towards the sun. We can gather more ideas. The reason why I focused on color is because Aimee suggested it as a possibility, and Dahaos seemed enthusiastic about it. @Ditto101, I like your idea of organizing our thoughts. Here are some more: Different types of soil. Food coloring in water (Red, blue, green). Different types of liquids such as orange juice, red bull, etc. instead of water. Water would be the control Anyone else have ideas? |
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October 13, 2011 | 6:23 AM |
ditto101
(Team Member)
More Experiment Ideas I just want to organize all the ideas we've been gathering and maybe offer a couple of my own... -Using the color spectrum as a source of light -Using variable wavelengths for different types of light -Using refracted or reflected light -Using different intensities of light on the the plant -Using different amounts of nutrients or fertilizers -Using variable sized pots or containers to restrict the size the play has to grow -Using a tilt on the plant to see affect on flowers and/or plant -Using temperature (like if heat or chilliness will affect the plant) -Using a variable amount of water for the plant Any more ideas? |
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October 12, 2011 | 7:47 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
Why Focus on Just Color @carlycat and @mychael we did talk about other possible experiments and before we even talked about the light i mentioned a possibility of fertilizer. It's great that we are thinking about an experiment but we need other ideas like the ones me carly and sean came up with today. The thing about the light is green, orange, and yellow won't work because a green plant can only utilize Blue-Violet and Red light in the color spectrum. Maybe we can follow Carly's example and think of other great experiments instead of light. How about tilting our plant to see if a slant could effect it's growth because i know that some flowers will turn up towards the light when they grow even if they are upside down. |
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October 12, 2011 | 6:34 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Experimental design Hi Aimee, I'm not sure I understand your question. If you mean do we have filters for different lights, I'm assuming we could get those easily, but I'm not sure. If we don't use all the colors, I would say that a subset could be ROYGB. Red, orange, and yellow are colors that are warmer. Blue and green are cooler colors, at least in design. Indigo is not the most commonly mentioned color in the rainbow, and violet is not as common as the other colors either. This would bring our total to 6 light types: ROYBG + light bulb. Dahaos made some sketches, and we realized one more issue. Do we use fluorescent or a light bulb as our control? I'd like to hear what your opinion is as well as the rest of the group's. |
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October 12, 2011 | 6:27 PM |
carlycat
(Team Member)
Experimental Design/Experiment Ideas @mychael, the reason that I agreed on 4-5 conditions is that I wasn't sure of our limitations on time to grow the plants and materials in which to grow them in. Now that I know that our supplies are basically limitless, and since we're now possibly testing using ROYGBIV (or at least some subset of it) plus other basic lights, more conditions would probably be best. We should probably take some more votes to see how we're going to go about this experiment, if this is definitely the one we choose. Also, in school today we were discussing that instead of testing different types of light and their effects on the growing lettuce plants, we test the amount of light given to each lettuce plant and those effects on the plants. This would be a good idea if the outcome of the vote we take on how many conditions we use is 4-5. Other basic ideas we could use for experiments in case this one doesn't work (I hope it does, but if there are too many complications, we may need to change it): -Seeing how different soils with different nutrients/fertilizers affects the growth of the plant. -Testing to see if growing the lettuce plants in different sized pots affects the size of the plant (basically if compressing the roots affects the size of the plant). Again, these are simple, and only back-up ideas, but as Aimee said, the more ideas, the better! -Carly |
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October 12, 2011 | 9:51 AM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
Experimental design @mychael, I agree, I would use ROYGBIV (or maybe just a subset...RGB at the least) versus regular lightbulb as the control. Would it be possible to change the colors using either light filters or colored lightbulbs? @ditto101, you are correct, ideally, wavelength would be the variable, but do you have something to measure that? If not, color is a good approximation of wavelength. If there are other ideas floating around for possible experiments, please do share! The more ideas, the better! |
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October 12, 2011 | 5:52 AM |
ditto101
(Team Member)
Re: Experimental Design @mychael, as of right now, I think 4-5 conditions is enough, because the more conditions we have, the more general our hypothesis becomes. Even with 4-5 conditions, the hypothesis we're going to have to write is still going to be broad. As for our experiment, maybe we should consider other experiments as well, I know a couple group members wanted to see if maybe if we learned a little about the other plants and maybe looked at experiments we could do with them, then they might change their mind... And, our variable shouldn't really be color more as it should be wavelength or frequency (since the two are inverse to each other). |
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October 11, 2011 | 7:32 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Experimental Design Hi Aimee, Some answers to your questions (in my opinion): Why Reflective Light? We chose reflective light because we are testing which color light works best. Maybe when light is reflected, color(s) are lost or the colors are intensified/weakened. The control could be regular light from a lightbulb instead of the sun, as it is easier to control. Why Four Conditions? I don't know. I think that two people, Carlycat and Jackhths, just want this. Others such as Dahaos, Foermatt, want more than four light sources. Foermatt didn't say exactly, but in his post more than four sources are listed. Ditto101, has yet to post so I don't know where he is at. Personally, these are the sources of light I would choice: ROYGBIV (colors), reflected light (maybe), and regular light from a lightbulb. The lightbulb's light could be a control, as the sun's light can be considered a variable. The reflected light could be considered a 'color' since it encompasses all of the color spectrum. I don't think we should use this though, because the intensity may be different. We don't want intensity to be a variable. We want the only variable to be color. I hope to hear Ditto101's last post as well as everyone's opinion for this proposol. |
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October 11, 2011 | 1:54 PM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
Experimental design Hi everyone! It's great that you are thinking about the materials available to conduct your experiment, as this is an important aspect of experimental design. Can I ask why you've chosen reflective light as one of the conditions? Why only four conditions? If you are limited in the number of conditions you can test, it is important to think about each condition and make sure you are choosing the correct conditions to address the question you are trying to answer. I would encourage you to do some background research on photosynthesis and light. This will help you better formulate your hypothesis (we think ____ will happen because ______). Remember a hypothesis is an educated guess. Scientists don't randomly think of experiments, they think of experiments that either prove (or support) or disprove their hypothesis. |
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October 7, 2011 | 12:41 PM |
carlycat
(Team Member)
Our Project Hi there! This project sounds great! Seeing how light affects the lettuce will be interesting, because while it could make each plant's outcome different, they could also all be the same, which would be odd, but still informative. Also, I agree with Jack, four possibilities would be enough and still work. -Carly |
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October 7, 2011 | 12:26 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Observations on our project! Hello Aimee! After reading so many comments below of the ideas you’re giving us it has given me some new ideas that I can't wait refine over the weekend. However, on Thursday we conducted a vote at 10:30 A.M. as to what plant we want to use for our project itself and the votes came out as (YES) 5 and (NO) 1. Although, I still don't feel really comfortable that this vote wasn't unanimous I hope to conduct a second vote next week so we could finally decide completely as to what plant we wish to work with. The vote went towards lettuce and afterwards we started listing restraints that we have before we have even begun conducting our experiment. The first is actual tools to build the project, I understand it's a little early to be thinking about that but it is a current constraint. The list continued spanning things like Light, nutrition, water, and soil. Furthermore, our discussion of constraints led to a discussion in the topic of light. We started coming up with light sources that we could use like: UV, Infrared, Blue, Florescent, Reflected, and just normal sunlight. The only problem I see is the fact that if we don’t properly take care of the lettuce, it could have bottom rot ruining the experiment. We will have to be very careful as to how we treat the plant yet these are still the preliminary stages of the project itself so for now I think were fine. As for building the project I have come up with a few models that I plan to show the team, most of them involve using glass for reflected light creating a sort of pendulum of light leading to the plant. The others are domes that we could construct to house the plant so they experience their specific type of light (Blue, UV, Florescent, and Infrared). Hopefully the feedback is nothing but positive. Daniel |
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October 7, 2011 | 6:25 AM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
Experimental design Another option would be to use different colors of light. Plants only use the visible spectrum of light for photosynthesis (i.e. ROYGBV, the colors of the rainbow). So you could try to figure out which wavelengths of light they use for photosynthesis. Mychael's suggestion is a potentially good one also. Light is required for photosynthesis which produces sugars and allows the plant to grow. In the dark, the plant eats up all the sugars it produced in the light. Therefore, I would think that the longer the exposure to light the better. It is true that too much light can be bad. This happens when the plant is exposed to more light at one time (i.e. too many photons) than it can handle. So if you wanted to test this, you would have to test different intensities of light, not different lengths of time in light. If you plan to use the sun as a control, you are a bit limited because we can't control the sun. This is why scientists usually grow all their plants in a greenhouse, so that they can control the conditions. When scientists design an experiment, they usually try to keep everything constant, with only one variable, which is what they are testing. Hope this helps! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Aimee |
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October 6, 2011 | 6:03 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Hi Aimee, The sun as a control is fine, because we shuld be able to grow all the plants indoors. We have access to a large window that has light shining through. Plants need light for many processes such as photosynthesis. This helps them complete that process. Additionally, light helps in reactions such as the Calvin cycle. Basically, in this cycle, light triggers a series of chain reactions. Adding on to this, overexposure to light and under exposure to light is harmful. This means having light for twenty four hours a day is bad for the plant. Sunlight is better than most artificial lights due to the fact that it has the full spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. I believe after this research we should change our hypothesis. I believe we should test how many hours of light is most ideal for growing lettuce. Since research says that lettuce can grow on less than five hours of light, I believe we should test hours around that mark. We could test three, four, five, six, and seven hours. If we have about fifty lettuce plants, ten for each hour, then we can ensure accuracy. The hypothesis could be something like: If we use different amounts of light, then we believe that ______ hours will work best. We believe this because ______. One reason why lettuce doesn't require as much light is because too much makes it better. One concern I have with this is measuring growth. How do we measure growth? By height? By width and height? By how green/brown it is? I would like to hear the group's opinion. Thanks for your help Aimee! |
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October 6, 2011 | 4:46 PM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
Experimental design I think this could be a potentially great experiment, but I have a few comments. I agree with Mykael about working on formulating your hypothesis. I think if you think about it a bit more, it will help you come up with the appropriate experimental design. For instance, why have you chosen the light conditions you have chosen? Why do you choose to leave out the different colors of light? It is a good idea to use the sun as a control, but remember that experimental plants need to be grown under the same conditions as the control plants. Will you be growing them indoors or outdoors? To improve your experimental design, try to think about why plants need light, and try doing some research about it to see if you can make a more educated guess about what they would prefer and how to test that hypothesis. |
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October 6, 2011 | 1:44 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
Interesting @foermatt I think that if we do use a control it should be the sun. We don't need variations in the lights power and color that would just add more work to deal with. So let's say maybe four possibilities the sun, just UV (that includes UVA and UVB), a regular light, and another one from the light spectrum (infared, microwave, gamma, or X-rays.) |
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October 6, 2011 | 1:41 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Project Hi everyone, @Matt, now that the vote is much more decisive, I think we I agree with you that we will be using the lettuce plant. Your idea seems great, just a few tweaks should be made. 1. We should use at least five lettuce plants under each light to ensure accuracy in our results. 2. The hypohesis needs to be reworded. Something like this: How is the type of light correlated with the growth of a lettuce plant. We believe that Insert type of light will allow the plant to grow best because... Another hypothesis could be: If we use different types of light, then we think the insert name of light will allow the lettuce plant to grow best because... Those two types of hypothesises are probably the best, I would suggest the If,Then hypothesis since I personally have had more success with it. We don't have to even use this hypothesis, but we definetly could. I would like to hear everyone else's opinions as well. |
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October 6, 2011 | 12:57 PM |
foermatt
(Team Member)
Project For the plant project, I think I can say we are going to be using the lettuce. Our problem that we should try to solve could be, "Different types of light make lettuce grow different, so which light will make the lettuce grow either the fastest or the most healthy?" To accomplish this I think we should use 5 different plants, each with a different light. For example, one plant could be lit only by Ultra Violet light, another by regular light, anotherwith no light and maybe the other two could be lit in different amounts of light or different colors. Our biology lab has the resources for all of these materials as far as I know. This is only an idea for a project, I'd like to hear what the rest of the group has in mind. |
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October 6, 2011 | 12:46 PM |
foermatt
(Team Member)
Re Vote Today we voted again... 1 Pepper (Mychael) 5 Lettuce (Everyone Else) It seems we are going to do the Lettuce. If you want yet another vote I give my vote to the lettuce and you can ask anyone else because we talked about the project today at lunch. |
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October 5, 2011 | 7:35 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Vote Okay, the vote so far is... 1 Lettuce (Jack) 1 Pepper (Mychael) Can't wait to hear your opinions Dan, Carly, Matt, and Sean. |
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October 5, 2011 | 6:40 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
Vote plus extra I still like the idea of the lettuce because of the deficiencies it does have it would be great be able to find out if it is possible to solve those. @mychael the "experiment" in the scientific method is when we do the experiment. actually forming the idea is part of the research and find a problem. I don't want to sound like I'm being mean but just so I am clear. |
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October 5, 2011 | 6:20 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Plant Choice and Week Three Progress Hi everyone, For week three, this is what I think the group has learned as a whole: -For the Wisconsin Fast Plant, we learned that it grows in about a month. This plant grows very fast and therefore the different stages are fast. This plant has to grow under conditions such as light, nutrition, moisture, soil, and space. This plant was bred by cross-germinating a faster growing plant and a disease-resistant plant. -For the lettuce plant, we learned that it is edible. Also, it requires a lot of light and a lot of water. Adding on to this, the lettuce plant can grow well in cold conditions, but the frost that can form gives it trouble. One more issue with this plant is that it is prone to pests. -For the Milkweed, it can grow from 6 to 20 decimeters. This is also resistant to predators. This plant attracts monarch butterflies. -For the last plant, the dwarf plant, we learned it can grow in small spaces. Also, the fruit is not edible for this plant. Some dwarf plants have edible fruit while others do. This plant looks nice and is good for gardening as well. As for the plant choice, I for one would like to change my vote after reading everyone's imput. At this time, it is very important to consider an experiment before we choose a plant. I think that I would like to grow either the milkweed or the pepper plant. For the milkweed, we could test something involving the monarchs the plant attracts. For the pepper plant, we could test something such as what phenotype for color is most common, or we could test something involving their fruits. However, I can see experiments for the other two as well. For the fast plant, we could grow it in different types of light, and with different types of water. For the lettuce, (if it is safe), we can test how the lettuce is grown in different conditions such as those mentioned above. Regardless of what the group decides, I think we should retake the poll now knowing what others think. @Jack, Carly, and Sean; you did seem pretty decisive on one or two plants. Have you considered ones other than what you have mentioned. @Jack, your experiment seems good, but we may or may not change the plant choice. Also, we should follow the scientific method of forming a hypothesis and then an experiment. For my vote on the retake of the poll, I would like to vote for the pepper plant. Please limit your vote to one plant even though we love them all. |
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October 5, 2011 | 2:33 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
Ideas? Sort of. Well I think that we should really try something with the lettuce and maybe try to make a mini water cycle within it. As a planter I suggest taking a metal garbage can and filling up a good 8 inches or so with soil and putting the seeds in the soil. then we make a clear plastic cover with tiny holes in it for air flow (to provide CO2). As the moisture in the soil evaporates most of it should condense on the cover and metal sides where once the drops get big enough they will fall simulating rain (providing H2O). Then all we would need to do is put a light on the top that doesn't need to be that powerful because it should reflect off of the sides of the garbage can. Perhaps as an experiment we can try something like natural and non natural pesticides, anyone else like to comment |
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October 4, 2011 | 8:22 AM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
Plant Choice In the lab, when we pick a model organism, we generally consider the following questions: -What model is best for the question I am trying to answer? -Is the model well-developed? In other words, have others worked with it before and worked out protocols? Are there plenty of resources out there to help us interpret our results? When we plan an experiment, some things we have to consider are: -Timeline -Sample size/statistics/replicates The Wisconsin Fast Plant seems like an ideal model organism because it was basically developed to be one. Scientists bred it to have a shorter life cycle so that it could be used for research in the laboratory and the classroom (The original "wild-type" had a life cycle of 6 months, whereas the classroom version has a life cycle of 5 weeks). In addition, they can grow very dense so you can get a big sample size to determine whether your results are significant, and there seem to be many resources available online. That being said, what makes science progress is asking original questions and doing experiments no one has done before. If you have a question specific to lettuce, I would encourage you to pursue it! |
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October 2, 2011 | 7:05 PM |
Elena J Batista
(Scientist/Mentor)
Information from Mr Roche for mentor Dear Mentor, Mr Roche asked me to forward this information to you. The students have received this email as well. The ultimate goal for this experience is to design and propose an experiment that will add to our knowledge about how to best grow each of these species in our classrooms/laboratories here at HTHS. Other goals include having you • assume responsibility for your own learning • practice skills related to teamwork, leadership, punctuality, time/project management, communication, collaboration & creativity • experience opportunities for meaningful descriptive research and literature searches • see the relationship between the biology curriculum and your Intro to Research mini-course topics • prepare you for proposing your own independent research for sophomore year • contribute input about how to best assess team projects and products here at HTHS Deadline for this project is mid November. This is a deadline for the finalized proposal. The actual experiments will not take place until 2012. No experiment will be done this semester. Twelve experiments will be proposed - one from each team. The guidelines for the proposal will be communicated later this month - in mid October. The goal for week three is to compile all your team has learned about each of the four plants. This information should then be shared with your mentors. Feel free to store "tidbits" or assemble "rough drafts" in your team workspace on the bbs. Thanks and good luck to you all! Elena |
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September 30, 2011 | 1:43 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Plant Choice Hi Aimee, I personally thought we should pick a plant first, but we'll see what the group says. After polling the team, majority of our team voted for the lettuce plant. Is there anything we should know about this plant besides what we have mentioned via our posts? Also, if we count your vote, the fast plant was a close second. 3 votes for the fast plant, 4 votes for the lettuce. So, what pros/cons are there to using the lettuce over the fast plant, as those are the two our group like the most? Nice talking to you again! |
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September 30, 2011 | 1:10 PM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
Plant Choice Hi guys, I am impressed with all the research you guys have done! Do you guys plan to pick a plant first and then come up with a research question, or do you have a question in mind already? Fast generation time is always a very desirable trait in a model organism, so I would probably vote for the Wisconsin Fast Plant, but if you chose something like the Dwarf Pepper Plant, maybe you could ask some fun questions and get some interesting phenotypes. Aimee |
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September 30, 2011 | 1:00 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Plant choice Hi guys, @C2, the vote seems to be majority lettuce, so lettuce it is! @Jack, why did you choose lettuce over the others? What do you know about the others? The research you did on the one plant was exceptional, but you have no research on the others to back up your selection. @ Carly, Like Jack, you did exceptional research on the lettuce plant. You also did extensive research on the fast plant, but did you consider the dwarf and the milkweed? I know for one, that I learned things I didn't know before. Maybe you would've liked one of the others even more than the lettuce. Regardless, good job to everyone this week. |
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September 30, 2011 | 12:53 PM |
carlycat
(Team Member)
Week Two Report/Plant Choice Hello again Aimee! As I'm sure you've already seen, our group has begun to do research on the four types of plants available in hopes of finding one that we would like to use in our experiment. The Fast Plant would be good because of how it grows in only about one month. This would give us more time to experiment with it and not just watch it grow. Also, they grow well under fluorescent light, which i'm almost positive we have at hand. However, the plants need to be under the light continuously, for 24 hours a day. That may not be too ideal. The other plant I was interested in was the Organic Lettuce Plant. This would be good because it's interesting; lettuce grows differently from other plants. They grow better in cold climates, and require only about 6 hours of light a day. A set back would be that growing lettuce requires a lot of water, since lettuce is almost entirely made up of water. The soil it's grown in must be wet at all times, and it could be tricky to keep track of that if we don't pay attention to it (not that we would neglect our plants, of course!) So, after considering the two that interested me the most, I think my vote goes to the Organic Lettuce Plant. Sure, keeping it in a good temperature and keeping its soil wet might be a challenge, but I think we're up to it! So, now the votes are 2 for the Fast Plant, 1 for the Dwarf Pepper Plant, and 4 for the Lettuce Plant. Looks like Lettuce wins! -Carly |
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September 30, 2011 | 12:51 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
Plant Choice/research I personally vote for lettuce because I want to eat it and here is what I found out about it. Plant lettuce in loose soil that holds moisture well with a PH oh 6.0-7.0 in sunlight to partial shade. Amend sandy soil with compost and the use of mulch is very very good. Lettuce should be 1inch apart for baby heads and 12 inches apart for large heads and don't let it flower or else it becomes bitter. They take about 7-10 days to germinate and 30 days for baby heads to be harvested and anywhere from 45-85 days for larger heads. Lettuce seeds will germinate at about 35 degrees Fahrenheit but it is best done at 70-75 degrees, make sure it doesn't get too hot or too cold. Lettuce should stay cool. |
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September 29, 2011 | 9:05 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Plant Choice Thank you Dan and Sean for posting today as I discussed in the e-mail I sent to our team. @Sean, I'll make a mental note of your vote. @Dan, thanks for your input. So far for the poll: 2 votes for fast plant (Dan and I) 1 vote for dwarf (Sean) 2 votes for lettuce (Sean and Matt) @Carly and Jack, I would like to hear what you think, your input is just as important in this process as everyone elses. |
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September 29, 2011 | 7:42 PM |
ditto101
(Team Member)
Late Intro and Re: Plant Choice Hi, my name's Sean! I'm sincerely sorry that I hadn't posted an introduction earlier...I have a green thumb when it comes to gardening, and I hope this project will be interesting and exciting! As for the plant choice, I, too, did a little bit of research, and learned a couple of things, like how the Ornamental Dwarf Pepper Plant's fruit is edible, contrary to popular belief, but most people prefer using its fruit for show rather than taste. (Plus, it's extremely spicy!) And how the Wisconsin Fast Plant originated from the breeding of two different plants, one that was resistant to disease and another that had a fast generation cycle, so that the new plant would improve its disease resistance throughout its generations. After working with the Wisconsin Fast Plants in 5th grade, I feel as if either the Ornamental Dwarf Pepper Plant or the Organic Lettuce Plant would be nice to work with for this project. @Mychael, I think a poll sounds like a good idea. ~Sean |
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September 29, 2011 | 7:31 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Week Two Report Sorry for not putting a subject my comment was the second time i had written it. Unfortunatly my internet blocked out the first time. - Daniel |
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September 29, 2011 | 7:30 PM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Hello! I studied all four plants very carefully and have found some pretty amazing facts about tha plants themselves. The fast plant finishes growth in about one month, however germination ends after the first two days and the plant is half grown by day 15. The fast plant also is bred to grow under specific condtions like: light, nutrition, moisture, soil, and space. The Milkweed i found most interesting out of all. Milkweed was a common ingredient in Native American remedies, for example the Cherokee's mixed it with Virgin Bower and drank it as a remedy for backaches. Milkweed is also a chemical defense for caterpillers as it makes their flesh distasteful for most predators. Milkweed can grow from 6 to 20 decimeters and can be propagated by cuttings or seeds, however cuttigns are more reliable for the fact that they occasionally bloom in their first year while normally both styles of propagation have the plant bloom in the 2nd year. I saw 4 different types of Ornamental peppers which were Albino, Alborado, and Gion Red. Albino grows as an attractive white plant which later turns red.The plant grows up to 18 feet. Alborado has peppers that grow very early and are on average medium sized. The Gion Red has a blue-green foilage and varies from yellow, red, and orange colors. The peppers themselves are pyramid chaped and are about 1 inch long (GIon Red). The lettuce seems like an interesting plant as well since we could eat it after we grow it! Lettuce is the one of the largest profits for farms. Furthermore, the lettuce has many perennial pests that could prove difficult to cope with while we are growing it like rotting that occurs in the roots if we improperly maintain it. Over all i think the most feasible plant to work with is the fast plant, fast and easy. Although i think it would be best to talk it over with the rest of the group. Overall I believe we are making great progression in our project. Also another thing that is reliable about the fast plant is that we could grow many not only one giving the group many plants to experiment with. Can't wait to begin experimentation! -Daniel |
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September 29, 2011 | 3:59 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Plant Choice Hi Guys, @Matt, I would like to suggest we make a poll. Since you feel that the lettuce would be good to test, we could say that has one vote. I would place my vote for the fast plant. As long as C2 as a whole agrees, we could implement this system to decide which plant to test. My biggest concern with the lettuce is the issues it has in the winter, although there is nothing perfect with any of the plants. Thanks for posting today as I discussed in the e-mail I sent to our group. |
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September 29, 2011 | 12:42 PM |
foermatt
(Team Member)
Correction Not to try to spam the comments or anything, I would like to correct my misspelling of the word "reading." I did not notice that when I read through it before Sorry, Matt |
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September 29, 2011 | 12:40 PM |
foermatt
(Team Member)
Week Two Report Hello! After reeding about the plants Wisconsin Fast Plant, Ornamental Dwarf Pepper Plant, Milkweed Plant, and Organic Lettuce plant, I learned that each one of them have their own specific traits. These traits really define the plant like us humans are defined by our personalities and our body's make-up. For example, the fact that the Wisconsin Fast Plant can grow to full size in about a month makes it different than a plant such as an oak tree that can take hundreds of years to reach a mature size. Unlike many pepper plants, the Ornamental Dwarf Pepper Plant does not bear fruit that is eddible (the peppers) but it has other traits that hep it survive such as the ability to grow in small spaces. The Organic Lettuce Plant is a different type of plant compared to most. This plant spends more than a month growing to its full size but when that is achieved it is either killed by natural forces (parasites, weather) or it is almost entirely consumed by other organisms. A very interesting plant for me is the milkweed plant. I have heard a lot about this plant growing out in the wild and how it attracts butterflies in an attempt to spread its seeds. When I read about this specific trait I thought of the dandelion and its ability to spread its seeds through the wind. @ Mychael, I feel that growing the Organic Lettuce Plant would be very interesting. I would like to see how the main ingrediant in most salads grows and if this species of it is any different than the lettuce we eat regularly. @ Carly, Dan, Sean, and Jack, I would like to hear what plant you guys would prefer so we could look further into that one species. From, Matt |
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September 28, 2011 | 8:10 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Week Two Report Hi! I would like to encourage my team to post early in the week and meaningful posts, which is why I am posting my report today. After doing some research on the following plants; Wisconsin Fast Plant, Ornamental Dwarf Pepper Plant, Organic Lettuce Plant, and Milkweed Plant. I personally have learned that the Wisconsin Fast Plant has a short life cycle of about one month. This plant reproduces as an adult by having its seed pods fall off. Inside the seed pods are seeds. As for the Ornamental Dwarf Pepper Plant, it has a fantastic ability: it can grow in small spaces. This is great because if you had an ecosystem of plants, there can be a large amount of this plant in a small area compared to other plants in the ecosystem. This plant also looks nice. I even learned that this plant is good for gardening. Lastly, this plant is resistant to insects and disease. This ability helps it survive. The third plant is the Organic Lettuce Plant. This plant is edible as the name suggests. This is part of the family asteraceae. This plant takes at least a month to grow, but usually more. It partly depends on the species. This plant has some trouble in the winter with frost, which makes this a hard seller to experiment with. The fourth, and final plant is the Milkweed Plant. This plant is very diverse as shown by the fact that it is one of more than one hundred forty species of Milkweed. This is part of the family asclepiadaceae. This plant can come in many colors such as pink and white. I personally worked with this plant at my old school, and know that this plant can grow quite tall. This plant is very well known for attracting Monarch butterflies. The Milkweed plant must be grown for at least a month before Monarch Butterfly larvae can eat parts of the plant. I would probably want to use the Wisconsin Fast Plant for an experiment because of its ability to grow so fast. @Aimee, what do you think is a good choice? @Carly, Jack, Dan, Matt, and Sean; what do you think would be a good choice for a plant. (feel free to BBS me with your response as well as posting it on here). @ Aimee, We have many materials available to us. We have light sources that are artificial, as well as natural light. The artificial light can move on a timer. We have simple materials such as water, seeds of the various plants, and soil. If you need to know if we have access to a specific item not mentioned, please post your question here. Nice to talk to you again Aimee. |
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September 23, 2011 | 7:17 PM |
carlycat
(Team Member)
Introduction Hey there! I'm Carly. I always try my hardest and love to learn new things - especially in science. That's why I can't wait to get started on this project! Nice meeting you! |
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September 23, 2011 | 12:30 PM |
mychael
(Team Member)
Intro Hi! I'm Mychael. I'm excited to work with plants and am good in science. I play games a lot and it is nice to meet you. |
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September 22, 2011 | 11:39 AM |
Dr. Aimee Terauchi
(Scientist/Mentor)
Introduction Hi Everyone! I'm Aimee Terauchi and I am your Scientist Mentor. I am a post doctoral researcher at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri. I recently moved here from California. I work on mineral nutrition in algae and improving algae strains for biofuel production. I can't wait to hear what project you choose! Aimee |
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September 21, 2011 | 5:04 PM |
jackhths
(Team Member)
Introduction Hi, I'm jack and I'm all for going green and keeping peace in the world. I'm a kiwi and proud of it which basically means i have New Zealand blood in me. I like to read, write, play games, and act, among other things. I'm kind of weird and creative in a good way. |
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September 21, 2011 | 5:20 AM |
dahaos
(Team Member)
Introduction Greetings, I'm Daniel, team leader of group C-2 of the High Technology High School Planting Science Project. I have a pretty productive team and I believe that we all will do our best to create an amazing project! I can't wait to begin and neither can my team! This will be a productive year, I'm sure of it! Daniel |
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September 21, 2011 | 5:11 AM |
foermatt
(Team Member)
Hello Hi my name is Matt, I am really excited to learn more about planting and plants themselves. The start of our rain garden here at High Technology High School looks like it will be a great project. I love being outdoors and I find the woods fascinating, especially when camping. I have been to the Pine Barrens a few times and would love to learn more about the plants that surrounded me. From, Matt |
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September 20, 2011 | 1:55 PM |
Elena J Batista
(Scientist/Mentor)
Greetings from Louisiana! Hello all, My name is Elena and I am a graduate student at Louisiana State University. I'll be your school's scientist liaison this fall semester. I will keep an eye on all the teams from your school so I know what's going on with all of you! My job is to help keep conversations going strong between you and your mentor Dr. Terauchi. I may comment every once in a while if I think I can help out. Good luck and enjoy your semester! Elena |
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September 20, 2011 | 7:49 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. Your scientist mentor for this project will be Dr. Aimee Terauchi from Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Please introduce yourself and post some possible research topic ideas to get a conversation rolling. 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 |
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