Here are some pics, tables and graphs from my report :)

A side, then arial view of Batch 1 (from left to right is underwatered to overwatered)


2nd Batch

Individual Effects- brown new growth wrinkled up, die back and wilting

A close up of the undeveloped radish bulbs on the overwatered plant 1st batch (the red things)

Table 1 Plant Heights


Graph 1 Plant Heights


Visual Observations at the end


*and a quick note- last time i accidently kept referring to the growing radishes as bolts- well the correct term for them is bulbs. bolt is the name given to an undeveloped radish bulb that will never finish growing. Thats what mine were due to SEVERE over crowding in the 1st batch and too much rain water in the 2nd batch

** and a not so quick not just giving a run down on my prac report:
my final title: Effects of Water Quantity on Plant Health and Growth
my final aim: to investigate the effects of of water on a plants growth and health
hypothesis: as the amount of water a plant receives increases, the plants growth and health increase as well
discussion: where to improve: next time larger pots. turns out your ment to grow radishes at least 1-2 inches apart from each other to avoid bolting like mine did =/ so that was a MAJOR problem becuase the experiment kind of turned out a dud- but at least there are still things to take away from it and ive got results
and also something HORRIBLE which i didnt realsie till yesterday. so i didn't conduct a fair test. :( after going to so much trouble to make sure i could control as many little variables as possible i made a huuugggeee mistake: when i repeated the test remember how i said this time ive only planted 18 seeds instead of dividing the packet by 3 like the 1st time to advoid overcrowding again? well thats not keeping it controlled and fair- its changing the experiment! :'( and i didnt realise i did anything wrong till yesterday when its allll over!! so upset :( haha im hoping that maybe because i can see that ive made this mistake and have identified and said how it should be corrected that maybe i wont be penalised as bad? can always hope =/
and finally conclusion: from this experiment i have concluded that yes the amount of water a plant receives does make a difference to its health and growth hence the problem of over and under watering and that it is not neccessarily true that the more water a plant receives the better and faster it will grow and more healthy it will be. In fact, i found the ideal amount of water is 1/2 the volume of the pot plant e.g. 50 ml of water for a 100 ml plant. well this is all covered in my report but felt that i should put it up here as wel *sigh* just creating extra work for myself now aren't i?- i'd rather see it as thats how committed i am to my blog :) haha

so until next time
good bye everyone, its been a good time
Steph
xx

Wow last blog

wow so its all over :O i don't know what to say but ill give it a go anyway haha
so ive learnt A LOT from this. it really has been a great learning experience, its forced me to be more active in 'the scientific community' and promoted independence. I feel so senior doing it haha its the begining of a possibley loong road if i do science next yr :) so the experiment has required me to be responsible, efficient and keep on top of my work. It has required a lot of research and learning new ways- like referencing- ive never done in-text referencing before. I know a lot more about plants and this knowledge will forever be helpful when i have my own house and garden to look after. Since it is my last blog i will upload my last pictures of how the experiment finished up and all my tables and graphs.
The last group ended today and the results are in the table. thanks for standing by guys.
Good bye and signing out (well after the pictures are up)
Steph

All most done

so im half way through my report so far which is good :) but ill have to keep working right up till the last day because my 2nd batch of plants wont be finished till 2 days before. Each has gone for 25 days.
so the 1st batch is all done and thye kind of failed!!
the finishing heights were:
9cm for the overwatered
10 cm for the normal
and 0cm for the underwatered-it still has the same length stems but no longer has any height at all
for my report i've chosen to only include plant heights as this is what indicates how healthy a plant is as an unhealthy plant can't support itself so will droop losing height. The length of stems isn't as relevant as the underwatered plant still has the longest stem length but no height as it is almost dead. so obviously, stem length doesn't indicate health as accurately.
Also Mr FlowerPower Guy told me that my radishes should be ready to harvest within 20-22 days. So why have i left mine in 25 days you may wonder??? well to me they definitely did not look ready. I could not see the red tops/tips of anything growing beneath the surface so i decided to leave them 3 more days. Yesterday i up rooted some of them and guess what?! NO radishes!!!! none at all. but this can be accounted for: 1stly i had too many seeds in the one pot which ment overcrowding and not enough room for the radishes to develop. woops. 2nd. radishes need 'well drained' soil so obviously they don't want too much water. unfortunately we received record amounts of rain over the past 25 days and that got to all the plants. So this added onto the daily watering also stunted radish development. However you can see the start of radishes growing on the roots. When i uprooted them each plant had a different amount and whilst not fully developed radishes, like they should have definitely been at this point in time, there was still something to show for all of this. The results were:
the average watered plant:
the developing radishes (also known as bolts) on this plant were the largest and highest quantity.
the overwatered plant came next: it had a fair few bolts growing but not quite as many as the normal plant. they were slightly smaller in size too.
the underwatered plant had the least bolts. Very few actually and they were pretty small in size. Not all the roots/ seedlings had produced a bolt unlike the other 2 plants where majority had.
so that is that for my first try at the experiment. over all the results/ trends are as follows:
initially the more water the better as it gives it a good head start but after the 1st few days the amount of water should be reduced to an average amount so that it only seeps out of the botom slightly. however by day 7 less is more and the plant grws best with little water. However the underwatered plan startsdieing as the experiment continues (this happened around day 16 but due to rain it recovered and returned to its healthier state. It didnt start drooping then until the 23rd day where it had a drastic drop). The normally watered plant prevailed to be the healthiest and tallest. So all in all it is better to give your radishes a moderate amount of water as although they may be slightly behind at first, that amount of water will keep the plant going strong and at the end it will be the best one standing where the underwaterd plant dies off and the overwatered plant drop off.

As for the 2nd batch of plants they're still going strong.
the overwatered plant has grown to 10 cm and the normally watered one to 10.5 cm. the underwatered plant reached 9.5 cm but over the past 3 days has slowly been drooping and decreasing in height. it currently stands at 9 cm and is now the shortest plant. it started decreasing 3 days after the 1st underwatered plant did and is decreasing at amore steady rate.

i will upload a graph to show how the 2 runs of the experiment compare so far and this will look similar to the graph i use in my report (i'll just need to wiat for the 2nd lot to finish 1st though). I'll also upload pictures of how the plants looked by the end and the pictures of the bolts as well as a table comparing the bolts and how the plant looks visually health wise.

for my discussion i have many errors to discuss- the human errors include not thining the plants out and crowding them. the fact that i i could only be as accurate as my ruler would allow (to the nearest mm) is alimit of reading error and the systematic errors which i could not help include: general individual variation in the seeds affecting individual plant growth, the rain which disrupted my experiment majorly, the fact that i could not maintain a consistent amount of sunlight every day and same for temperature and wind- at least all 3 plants were sunject to equal amounts of each of those variables.
thats all for now, ill be back later to upload pictures :) bye!

so this was taken on the 5th and shows how the plant is starting to fan out and grow towards the edges.


this is a picture of the 1st batch of plants. the underwatered plant(up the top) shows how it is drooping and almost dead.


This is a close up of the underwatered plant. Note how it is drooping completely over the edge of the pot as it can not support itself anymore as it has been starved of nutrients due to lack of water.


This is a close up of the overwatered plant trying to show all the dieback. Once again it is not very clear in picture but i have circled where it is prehaps easiest to see it. The black there is not soil or shadow but the dieback occuring on the leaves.


This is an arial shot of the 2nd batch. I forgot to mention in my information post that even though the plants look healthy there are black dots occuring on the underside of some of the underwatered leaves. They ar only small but are increasing in amount. Ther are also a few black dots on some of the stems of the underwatered plant. =/ hmm haha i'll have to research what this means. Also important!!! in this experiment the overwatered plant is on the left. so from left to right it goes overwater, normal, underwatered. this is opposite to the other experiment as i put them behind there equivalent (i.e. the overwatered 2nd plant is behind the 1st overwatered plant). they are all receiving equal amount of sunlight and exposure to the wind though.


And this is a clos eup of the underwatered plant in the 2nd bunch to give you an idea of how they are growing

More Measurements

ok so ill go straight into the measurements:
5th:
All the plants remained the same height except for the overwatered plant in the 2nd batch which gre 1/2 a cm so now its 8.5 cm tall :)
the underwatered plant in the first batch is starting to spread out, as in instead of growing all together the stems are starting to fan out to the sides of the pot (i'll include a piture in my next pot). The leaves of the overwatered plant are also starting to get smaller by becoming more shrivelled.

6th June:
the first batch has remained the same height and there is little change except for the 2 things mentioned above. In the 2nd bunch however, the:
underwatered plant has grown to 9.5 cm
the normal has remained 9.5 cm
and the overwatered has also grown to 9cm

7th June:
the underwatered plant of the 1st batch is starting to die!!!! it is drooping quite a lot and the leaves are scrunching up! The over watered and normal plant are also producing some die back- especially the overwatered one.the heights are:
overwatered: 8.5 cm
normal: 9.5 cm
underwatered: 5 cm!! this is because its drooping over because it can not support itself as it is not getting the essential nutrients to stay healthy due to lack of water.

The 2nd batch have all remained the same :)

8th June:
the underwatered plant is definitely suffering. It is now completely drooping and can't support itself at all. The length of the plant has still remained at 10 cm (you will notice the height of this palnt over the past few days has ranged between 9.5 and 10 cm- this is most [robab;y a precision error because even though i feel im being as accurate as i can and am out there measuring the one plant for quite a few minutes too make sure i have the right height, i doubt that a plant grows and shrinks .5 cm each day haha.)
the overwatered: 8.5cm
the normal: 9.5 cm
the underwatered plants HEIGHT is now 2 cm
the overwatered plant has a lot of dieback especially in the middle towards the back. Most of these leaves are 3/4 black and scrunched up.

the 2nd batch has all remained the same height :)
that is all for now with measurements but im going to upload all my pictures now!

Still here! p.s. rain is not my friend -_-

hey so i decided to break this post up because otherwise it would be to longer with the pictures i uploaded below.
So here are the heights for the plants:
3rd June
1st batch-
Overwatered: 8cm
Normal:9.5 cm
Underwatered: 9 cm

2nd batch-
Overwatered: 7.5 cm
Normal: 9.5 cm
Underwatered: 9 cm

the overwatered plant was looking very deathly that day. it's leaves were scrunching and it had lost its colour. the underwatered plant has returned to normal because of reasons i will rant about below. the normal watered plant has the most die back at this stage (its only at the back)- leaves are turning brown and being wilted away. The overwatered plant has the 2nd most die back.
4th June:
1st batch-
Overwatered: 8.5 cm
Normal: 9.5 cm
Underwatered: 10 cm

2nd Batch-
Overwatered: 8 cm
Normal: 9.5 cm
Underwatered: 9 cm

RANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!! i hate the rain!!!!! because of the TERRENTIAL rain my plants (which are undercover but still! being affected) have been subject to more water than my otherwise controlled experiment would have them receiving. however this time the results will not 'maybe change' they definitely will! because my underwatered plant which i was finally seeing the effects of underwatering take place on (loss of vibrant green colour, drooping, scrunched up leaves etc) HAS RETURNED TO NORMAL!!!! the rain has provided it enough water to return to a healthy state completely stuffing up my results. i am increadibly fustrated because the rain has completely stuffed up my results and i do not have time to start again and the rain is an uncontrollable factor and does not look like it is going away anytime soon. HMPH! not happy :( so as of the 4th of june the underwatered plant has returned to normal health and started growing more!!! (where it had stopped and was starting to droop before). the overwatered plant is also getting more dieback as it is definitely receiving too much water. its probably got the most die back and is not only at the back but on the sides as well

thats all for now :)bye!

Photo opportunity!!!!!!!

Pictures of the 1st and 2nd batch of plants respectively- on the pictures turned on their side the top plant is the underwatered one (the one usually on the left) and the individual shot is of the overwatered plant in the 2nd batch just to give an idea of what it looks like up close.











These 2 pictures are of the die back (which i'll go into further detail about next post (In a few minutes)). this has been taken on the overwatered plant of th 1st batch its hard to see it in the picture even in my close up but its pretty clear in real life.

Plant Growth

Hey! so the last time i blogged was on the 30th
I have looked back on my last blog and have no idea what i was doing- my measurements have really confused me and make no sense so heres some correction:
the overwatered plant: 7 cm
Normal: 8 cm
Underwatered: 10 cm
since then:

on the 31st:
the overwatered plant (O) was: 8cm
normal was: 9.5 cm
and the underwatered was also 9.5 cm
however it now seems like the underwatered plant is starting to get effected. It is drooping more and the leaves are starting to scrunch up slightly- kind of drying up and it is not as green- it looks sick. Also some dieback is starting to occur- a healthy plant should receive very very little to none at all as die back is a sign something is wrong. The overwatered plant has currently got the most ie back but it is still minor on the edge of some leaves. The underwatered also has some too although slightly less.
for the 2nd batch:
Overwatered plant height: 4cm
Normal: 5.5 cm
Underwatered: 5 cm
The normal plant is growing the fastest just like the 1st experiment where it was right up there but this time the underwatered plant grew faster than the first time and the overwatered plant is growing at a slower rate.

On the 1st of june:
the overwatered plant was: 8 cm
the normal plant also remained at 9.5 cm
however the underwater plant had now drooped to 8 cm. It has not shrunk more so it is drooping and hence not as tall. Up until now, the length of the stems had been the same as the plants height as all plants were standing upright. But now- while the stem length is still 9.5 cm, its height has decreased. This indicates that the plants health is deteriorating as a healthy plant should have a strong stem that supports it allowing it to stand upright. the leaves of this plant are dieing and scrunching up more so as well. they are appearing more dried out then ever and the soil in this plant is very dry. The Underwatered plant now has the most dieback, followed by the overwatered plant and then last with little is the normal plant.

Batch 2 plant height:
Overwatered: 6cm
normal: 8 cm
Underwatered: 7cm

on the 2nd of June:
the plant heights of the first batch have remanined the same.

The 2nd batch:
Overwatered plant: 6 cm
Normal: 9cm
Underwatered: 8 cm

an afternote

oh and i forgot to mention that once again terrential rain has got to my plants which is another error i will talk about in my report discussion as it will effect results

...

A day time picture from the front:


and from the top:


and this picture is from the back showing how the plants are leaning towards the sun as mentioned in the previous post:


and the final picture is an arial view of the 2nd lot of plants for the repeated experiment:


The current heights are:
for the original 7cm
overwatered: 8cm
normal: 11 cm and underwatered: 9cm

for the 2nd experiment (batch 2):
overwatered: 2 cm
normal: 3 cm
underwater: 2.5 cm

all plants are healthy and green and i definitely think thining them/ not putting as many in the pot was a good idea :)

Some more photos!

So this is what the plants currently look like. Not much has changed over the past few days but the overwatered plant has grown almost a cm in the past 3 days and so has the underwatered plant but the normally watered plant hasn't grown very much at all. So in summary: the normal and overwatered plant started growing the fastest both sprouting and growing greenery however the overwatered plant slowed down completely and whilst the normal plant continued to grow fairly steadily, the overwatered slowed down almost stopping and is still currently smaller (however in the past few days it has begun to catch up). Then the underwatered plant; it was slow to start growing and started shooting a day later but over the past few days (as documented) has had a massive growth sprut and overtaken both plants to be the tallest and most volumous. Also I haven't been home in daytime at all this week so that is why the pictures are in the dark but this weeekend ill take more during day time so that the pictures are clearer. I'd also like to note that the plants are growing towards the sun as they are leaning in the direction of most light (i'll take some pictures to show this later as well).



And this is an arial view of them :)

Oh and this is there current heights - theyr growth has slowed down now on the 12th day:
overwatered (far right) is 6.5 cm
the normal (middle) is 7.5 cm
and the underwatered is 8.5 cm

Update!!

Hey, so it’s been a while but here’s a rundown of what happened:
So literally over night on the 7th night, the under watered plant had a MASSIVE growth spurt and went from severely shorter and fewer than the other to, to being the tallest, most plentiful plant. The overwatered plant is now the shortest and least plentiful plant. The controlled water plant is slightly shorter than the under watered plant and is pretty plentiful.
Personally I think this experiment is going disastrous!!! MY UNDERWATERED PLANT (which yes is definitely under watered) HAS GROWN THE MOST!!! IT’S NOT DIEING!!!!!!!!!!! Eugh what a disaster! Also I’m thinking that I might need to thin out the plants to? There are waay to many seedlings growing for the size of the pot so they are all crowded and pushing out the top of the pot.
I have also started my second experiment- so I’m repeating it, but I’ve changed the experiment so that there are exactly 18 seedlings placed in the pot instead of dividing the packet by three. The 18 seedlings are spread out so that they all have their own room to grow.

Up to Day 5

Unlike Day two and three, where although very close between the normal and overwater plants, the over watered plant was sprouting more, the normal watered plant is now producing/ growing more- as seen in the pictures there is more green evident :). the underwatered plant is still behind in development but has also started producing the greenery (i need to research what the proper term is as they have now gone beyond sprouting).

here is a picture of the 3 plants in comparison to each other (left= underwatered, middle = normal amount and the 3rd = overwatered)


and a close up of the over watered one to give you an idea of what these little shrub looking things actually look at (because of lighting reasons i couldn't get a clear shot of the other palnts so that is why i've included this picture- all plants look the same they just vary in quantity

Pictures :)

how the experiment should be set up :)



Day 2- the plants were already sprouting


end of Day 3- even the underwatered plant is begining to sprout

:O rain!

today it poured! from yesterday night through this morning and all day today it poured!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so my plants are undercover by the veranda roof but the rain has still come in a bit and hasn't drenched and flooded them but has got to them. so that will probably effect my results and will be included as an error in my report discussion. the plants are further developing and shooting up more, even the underwatered plant is beginning to shoot up! even though this has occurred 2 days after the other 2 plants.

Some minor adjustments to my method-mainly equipment:
i am doing the experiment twice through to make the results fairer
each pot plant is 100 mL
the light is filtered light. there is a perspex roof over the verandah which the plants are on providing filtered sunlight- this roof has provided very handy for example keeping out most of the rain today
and as i said in my previous post, i have decided on set amounts of water to give each plant every day.
:)

Progress

ok so im having maaajjooorrr technical difficulties with my laptop so im having to use my dads at the moment which means i can't put up a few photos of my experiment so far like i was hoping to but dw they'll be on hear soon.
So a run down:
by day 2 in the normal and overwatered plants the seeds were shooting and becoming visable at the top of the soil. by the 3rd day (which i have a picture for) there was definitely progress and the shoots had shot more and many more were visable in the normal and overwatered pot however i'm yet to see anything from the underwatered plant.

An adjustment i have made to my method is to water once a day not twice as i wrote below. Also i have decided to use the following measurements for watering to keep the experiment more controlled and ensure the plants are receiving the same amount of water every day; the overwatered plant is receiving 100 ml of water each day (the water is hust under pouring out of the bottom), the regular plant is receiving 50 ml (water is gradually seeping out the bottom) and the underwatered plant is receiving 25 ml and no water is coming out from the bottom.

thats all for now! sorry for the lack of pictures!

Finishing Touches for Blog Submission 2 :)

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/images/plantpath/soybean/topdieback/topdiebackleaves.jpg

Ok here is my final aim: to investigate the effects different quantity's of water have on a plant's growth and health.

And i've also included a picture of dieback which occurs in both under and over watered plants- a healthy plant shouldn't have it. as you can see at the edge of the leaf, the green is turning brown and yellow and crinkling up and dieing. This is what i have to look out for in the under and over watered plants because it is the earliest sign that somethings not right with the plant :) just thought i'd include a picture so everyone knows what im talking about when i refer to dieback

Close Up

I couldnt get a clear shot of my climate graph so ive included this close up for the temperature part as it came out blurry becuase my camera suks :(

Climate Graphs

My climate graphs- i included a close up of the other two cause i couldn't get a clear picture so yeh thats only to be cautious :)

Plan of Action

So I’m starting my experiment today – I no I’ve left this late but I just couldn’t make up my mind on a suitable project. From here I’m going to aim to blog 3 times a week at least and update photo!
I have palnted all my raddish seeds and have begun watering!!

The experiment has officially started!

Some background resarch WHAT TO EXPECT!!! hopefully..

Hey again! So I’ve done some research into what I should expect from my experiment. I’ve researched the effects of water on plants and why its so important for them as well as what plants require to be healthy and all that sort of stuff but I don’t know if I should include that background information on here???

Well here’s what I’m expecting should my experiment go to plan. The 1st plant is being under watered. The 2nd just right and the third over watered. these are some extracts from the some of the sites i used that are relevant to what happens if the water balance is out and how i will be able to tell this is happening:

If there is not enough entry of water in a plant, the nutrients it needs cannot travel through the plant.

If a plant’s soil has too much water, the roots can rot, and the plant can’t get enough oxygen from the soil. A plant cannot grow if it doesn’t have healthy roots, so the proper balance of water is key when growing plants.

One of the quickest ways is to just put your finger in the soil, up to your knuckle. If the soil is moist, it has enough water; if it is dry, you need to water the plant. If the pot feels lighter than usual, or if the soil is pulling away from the sides of the pot, it needs more water.
- http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/children-in-the-garden/how-does-water-affect-plant-growth.htm

Over-watering is the most common cause of death in indoor plants. If the roots of a plant are surrounded by water, they cannot absorb oxygen. Does a plant need water or oxygen to survive? It needs both, so over-watering kills the plant by rotting the roots and preventing the plant from absorbing much needed oxygen

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/how-to-water-a-plant.htm

Signs a plant is not getting enough water:
• Yellowing leaves or dried leaves toward the bottom of the plant. – too little water for a plant makes it conserve what little water it has by keeping the stalk green and the roots moist, but the leaves will turn yellow and wilt and eventually dry up.
• Start showing some root at the surface. The ground around the plants will be cracked, and you can be assured that your plant roots are not getting the moisture or nutrients they need to grow properly.
• The plant will eventually die.

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/problems/under-watering.htm

The signs for an overwatered plant are:
• Lower leaves are yellow
• Plant looks wilted
• Roots will be rotting or stunted
• No new growth
• Young leaves will turn brown
• Soil will appear green (which is algae)
• The signs of plants affected by too much water are very similar to plants that have too little water


The reason plants affected by too much water is that plants need to breath. They breath through their roots and when there is too much water, the roots cannot take in gases. It is actually slowly suffocating when there is too much water for a plant

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/problems/signs-of-plants-affected-by-too-much-water.htm

I also asked a guy working at flower power who explained the earliest signs of over watering will be dieback on the tips of the leaves.

Referencing; the methods behind my method

I used a number of methods to make up my own final one.
I based my method of planting radish seeds on this method from Garden Action
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_mini_project_june_1_radish.asp
However I had to modify it so that instead of sewing the seeds in a vegetable garden I planted them in pots. I also got a few facts about growing radishes which lead me to chose to grow them.

I used http://www.horticulturist.com/How%20to%20do%20things/watering.htm to make sure my directions for watering a plant were accurate- I know that sounds ridiculous but I had to find a more accurate was of saying pour water on the plants.

I also used the site: http://compost.css.cornell.edu/plantgrowth.html as a guide to create my own method but adjusted the variables mainly so that water became the independent variable.

After examining many more experiments it was mainly the 3 above I used to help me. Although I adjusted the above methods, mine is largely my own as I had to create the most appropriate method possible for my specific experiment.

How the Amount of Water Effects Plant Growth:

Hypothesis: Water increases a plant’s growth until a certain point.
Aim: To investigate if the effects of water on plant are always positive.

Equipment:
• 1 Packet of radish seeds
• 3 small plastic plant pots
• Soil
• A watering can
• Water
• Light source (sunlight)

Method:
1. Set up your 3 pots at a place outside which a) is out of the way of constant movement e.g. not in the middle of a verandah, so that they will not have to be moved and are safe from animals, b) receives an adequate amount of sunlight (allowing all 3 pots equal sunlight) and c) sheltered from strong winds
2. Fill the pots with soil up to 2 inch below the rim. Make sure that all pots are using the same soil and are filled equally.
3. Sprinkle the radish seeds thinly and evenly on top of the soil across the 3 pots.
4. Cover these seeds with an inch of soil across each of the pots. The soil level should now be 1 inch below the top of each pot.
5. Pour water in to the first pot so that half the soil is moist. *
6. Pour water into the 2nd pot until all the soil is moist and a little water comes out at the bottom. * Note: When you are watching for the water to come out of the bottom of the pot to show that all the soil is moist, be sure that it is not running down a space between the soil and the pot. If so, water a little, then wait for the soil to swell back to fill the pot.
7. Pour water into the third pot until water is flowing out of the bottom. *
8. Leave the plant alone so that the water can sink through.
9. Repeat steps 5-8 three times a day.
10. Construct a results table.
11. Record all observations about the plant and its growth in the results table on a daily basis. The observations should include the number of seeds that have germinated, plant height and observations about plant health such as color, the plant stability and condition of leaves. The number and size of leaves should also be monitored.
12. Keep all the pots in the same setting to minimize any variation in temperature, lighting, and other environmental factors, i.e. do not move the plants from their original position to maintain the controlled variables.

*It is important to add the water to the pot slowly so that it can properly soak into the soil.
** This is a draft aim and hypothesis, I still need to work on them I think x)

Discussion of Method:
The independent variable in this experiment is the amount of water used.
The dependent variables are the plants growth and health.
There are also many controlled variables such as the radish seeds, the type and amount of soil, the sunlight and temperature.

The 3 plants are in the same place all within 50 cm of each other. This is to control the amount of sunlight reaching the plants and the temperature each plant is in as controlled and constant as possible.

All three plants have been planted in the same soil which limits variation and ensures equality.

I have also chosen to use seedlings instead of young plants to enforce further control over the experiment. The problem with buying 3 pre planted plants for this experiment is that you have no control or much knowledge really before they were in your possession. So, I would have had no control on the amount of water and sunlight each had received prior to buying them or over the variation in how each had been grown. Also the plants may have been planted at different times meaning one is older than another and they may have suffered from a disease that I wouldn’t know about which could cause variation in the experiment.

I chose radish seeds because they grow quickly and thrive in cooler weather. They are also very well suited to containers as well as in the ground and very few disease effect radishes in their short growth cycle.

No Title

I have just scrolled down through my comments and realised that a plant based experiment is exactly what Ms Zhang recommended earlier- ur right as always ms zhang! ;) sorry for not listening to you earlier... should have known :S

oh, no

I think i am going to change ideas because after having our lesson about introductions etc i don't feel as though i will be able to write a strong one on my topic so i am opting to go for an experiment on plants. i am going to go to do research to find possible experiments now :)

FINALLY A DECENT IDEA!!!

Ok i think i might do "Which water body is safest to swim in, in terms of water quality/pH level?" And i would test the water pH level in 3 home swimming pools (to be fair as different home pools will probably be different), a public pool (Sans Souci Leisure Centre), Wooronora River, Kogarah Bay and Cronulla beach. To ensure it is a fair test i would test them all on the same day and it would all be within an hour of each other to ensure that it is the same conditions for allof them (such as weather,temperature and date etc) i would repeat the experiment numerous times to ensure a fair test. The independent variable would be the location/type of water body and the dependent variable would be the pH level of the water body.

I would just like to thank Laura not from school who helped me IMMENSLEY in coming up with this idea and must credit her for hr help.

I would conduct this experiment by going to each of these locations and collecting equal amounts of samples of the water. From here i have two possibilities; Laura has bought a special pH strip which you place in the water you want to test and then match the results with the numbers on the box which tells you what the pH level is. However i realise this might not count as normal household equipment so if i am not allowed to do this then i can use red cabbage to test the pH level (once again thank you to laura for suggesting cabbage when i asked if there was any food that i would be able to use). I would be able to measure the pH level by cutting up and boiling the cabbage in distilled water to extract the Flavin (how technical of me! basically flavin is an antioxidant that naturally occurs in cabbage and can be used as a pH indicator because it changes colour in different concerntrations of Hydrogen ions). I would then use this as the indicator and add to a sample of the water i am testing and find a reliable online chart to compare my results to and determine the pH level of that water sample. I would make sure i use equal amounts of the indicator on each sample to keep my experiment fair.

I have not run this idea by my science teacher yet as she has gone on YEAR 7 CAMP :O and i was not organised to decide on this idea before she left so my srp experiment may change it all depends on what Ms Zhang thinks of this idea!

I Think I Have Decided

I think i will go with the nail polish idea of "Does long lasting nail polish last longer than normal nail polish" I will have to look into the variables but at least i have decided a topic!!

Hmmmm, still thinking

I looked at the posters of last years SRP for some ideas yesterday but am hoping to go to the library soon and see the ones presented there which are the 'better' ones. The idea of seeing which type of chocolate melts faster - dark or milk interested me but after speaking to Miss Zhang she pointed out there are WAAYYY to many variables as each different brand uses there own ingrediens to make the final product and not all of it is chocolate. so unless i was to make my own chocolate, there are to many variables to be considered. I think i'll still go on with my nail polish ideas :)

Well there goes that idea

Well i talked to Miss Zhang and she pointed out how hard it would be to measure pressure. Obviously she is right and i have no idea how i would measure pressure or how i would be able to keep the pressure controlled and constant over 30 people. So there goes that idea =/. Im now thinking of doing something on nail polish such as Does the colour of the nail polish effect its strength or does long lasting nail polish actually last than normal nailpolish. Except i was really hoping to do my srp on a more biology type experiment. hmmm running out of time but still haven't decided!

Searching for ideas

Hi everyone! I haven't logged in in a while and just realised i didnt post my previous post properly so here it is (my post i was ment to publish last week):

Well ive been searching for ideas and came across the effects of pressure on athletes. my hypothesis would be that it has a negitive effect as i feel it has a negative effect on me but i would like to futher investigate it and come to a scientifically proven conclusion. I would be able to interview all my athlete friends across different sports as well as talk to my ex Olympian coach Craig stevens who has experienced more pressure than anyone else i know. i could compare people in my squad who are the same age, train the same and swim the same event and see how pressure effects each of them. It is a topic that really interests me and would like to do my srp on it.

Hello world

Hello World