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Thanks, team! I am glad to see that you have put some thought in developing a project that could work well at your school, and considering your local climate!
1. I think it's also great that you managed to show flexibility in changing your research directions. This is really important in science as we need to be able to quickly identify what are the most pressing issues to test and what are suitable ways of testing them. Also, when things don't quite work as we expect, we need to show flexibility and quickly shift the steering wheel.
2. Regarding your experimental setup. What type of cloth are you considering using for the several degrees of shading? I would recommend using a mesh with large pores as so UV light is not prevented from passing through completely. Also, depending on your mesh thickness you might not be able to achieve your five levels of shading since the additive effect of a couple of layers might already result in complete shade. So ideally, you would have a gradual decrease, going from very large openings (one layer), smaller openings (two layers) and so on.
3. Also regarding your setup. In science experiments, even if our results are shown in a neat and tidy way, the reality is messy. Plants know always germinate, or they don't always grow after germination, or they suddenly get attacked by a pest even if they were growing really well through the experiment. So my general advice is to plant more seeds than you expect to actually use to assess your results. Hence, if you want to analyse three plants per treatment, plant at least nine.
4. Speaking of results, what aspects of plant growth are you guys thinking of using to test your hypothesis?
PS.: I totally understand about the COVID situation. It's happening everywhere! Hopefully you'll soon be back to school, and I'll be back to the lab too!
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24-25 School Year?
Teachers! If you're thinking of bringing PlantingScience mentoring into your classroom during the 24-25 school year, applications are now open for BOTH sessions!
To apply, log in to your PlantingScience account and locate the application link under 'Resources'. For more information, check out 'Join as a Teacher' above!
Scientists, this is a great time to update your availability and consider adding Investigation Themes to your preferences. If you are new to PlantingScience, check out 'Join as a Mentor'.
We're looking forward to working with you! Please contact us if you have any questions.
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Scientist Mentors Needed!
As we grow and continue to pursue our F2 research, we are sending out this appeal to our Scientist community: please spread the word and invite your students, colleagues, and friends to sign up and mentor with us! Mentors range from late undergraduate students to emeritus scientists. Feel free to download our mentor flyer and post it in your institution to encourage others to join us, too!
Testimonials
“I liked that we didn’t know what was going to happen before we did the experiment. Instead of being taught something and then just doing an experiment to prove it, we made an attempt to find out what would happen ourselves.”
- PlantingScience Student
“At every opportunity, all involved kept reminding my students of the process that real science requires. This helped me to convince my students that they are really doing science - not just play acting until some future date.”
- PlantingScience Teacher
“It is a lot of fun interacting with students from an age group I don’t have the chance to spend a lot of time with. It is a good reminder of where public knowledge of plant science stands, and a great opportunity for me to practice explaining key concepts in a simple and straightforward way.”
- PlantingScience Mentor