| Explore | plants start as seeds they need light water and food |
|---|---|
| Research Question | how does the strength of light affect how fast the speed of germination is? |
| Predictions | if we increase the amount of light the seed would receive the seed will grow at a faster rate. |
| Experimental Design | step 1: in 8 different Petri dishes place paper towel step 2: in each petri dish put 5 mustard seeds and squirt 25 ml of water each step 3: place petri dish under box with the 40 watts light bulb step 4: place petri dish under box with the 60 watts light bulb step 5: place petri dish under box with the 25 watts light bulb step 6: place petri dish under the box with the 100 watts light bulb step 7: leave alone petri dish until passing time between 5th and 6th hour step 8: come back the next day before class to check if the paper towel is damp step 9: if dry, wet until once again damp and place it back in the box step 10: the next day check if each petri dish has a wet paper towel step 11: if dry once again wet until damp paper towel step 12: in the third hour see if the towel is damp if not wet and put back in the box step 13: record data on how the plants are growing repeating for 9 days |
| Conclusion | If we change the temperature of the seeds environment to over 100 degrees, then our seeds will not germinate or grow. This is because the temperatures are too extreme for the seeds to begin their germination process. We observed that all of the seeds under the 100watt lightbulb did not germinate and grew an average of 0cm. Likewise our seeds under the 75watt lightbulb did not swell up or germinate either resulting in an average of 0cm of growth from seed to root. In comparison our seeds placed under the 40 and 60watt lightbulb did not grow either. However, on day 2 of our investigation we noticed that 1 seed und the 40watt lightbulb had swollen up as the first stage of germination, and 2 seeds under the 60watt lightbulb did aswell. Once again on day 3 we observed 4 seeds swelling under both the 75 watt lightbulb and 60 watt lightbulb. However, this was very short lived given they did not go any farther in the germination process and did not fully germinate. Our seeds did not grow due to the extreme temperatures. Because our lights were on 24/7 the heat produced by the lamps caused the seeds’ environment to be over 100 degrees Farenheight. Seeds remain dormant until the right conditions occur for them to have a chance at success when they sprout. Most seeds require a temperature of 40-60 degrees Farenheight in order to sprout, and will be unable to germinate if the temperature reaches more than 80 degrees. Thus because of the extreme environment, we placed our seeds in, we did not receive any results in our investigation. |
| Investigation Theme | WOS |
| Teacher Name | Evelyn Gray |
| School Name | DeWitt Middle School |
| Session | Spring 2022 |
| About this Project | The Water Kingz ran into a situation where none of their seeds sprouted. The reason was unrelated to their question but happened due to their experimental design. This team persevered through what felt like ¨no data¨. Working with their mentor the learned that no growth is still data and know now to avoid too hot of lamps! --Evelyn Gray, Teacher |
