What is the Effect of Plant Growth with Organic Materials in the Soil?

Researched by Daniel C.
2000-01
  • PURPOSE 
  • HYPOTHESIS 
  • EXPERIMENT DESIGN 
  • MATERIALS 
  • PROCEDURES 
  • RESULTS 
  • CONCLUSION 

  • RESEARCH REPORT 
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
    		•

    PURPOSE 
     

    The purpose of this experiment was to find the effect of organic materials on plant growth.
     

    I became interested in this idea when I saw that some plants were growing better in one flower shop than  another.
     

    The information gained from this experiment will help people grow better flowers, vegetables, and crops. 
     
     

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    HYPOTHESIS
     

    My hypothesis is that plants will grow better with organic materials in the soil than without. 
     

    I base my hypothesis on information from Microsoft Encarta 2000 that, "Clay soil, a very tightly packed soil, becomes loosened by organic materials".

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    EXPERIMENT DESIGN

    The constants in this study were: 1. The amount of soil in the pot. 2.The size of the pot. 3.The amount of water (per plant). 4.The type of soil.
     

    The manipulated variable was using compost in one of the plant’s soil, but no compost in the other plants soil.
     

    The responding variable was the growth of the plant’s height.

    To measure the responding variable I will measure it in centimeters, every other day.

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    Materials
     
    Quanity Item Description
    1 Florescent light
    24 Bean seeds
    24 Styrofoam cups
    1 Bag of soil
    1 1/4 cup measuring cup
    1 1 tablespoon measuring cup

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    PROCEDURES
    1. Pour 1/4 cup of soil in the 24 cups.
    2. Put 3 strips of newspaper in 12 of the cups. 
    3. Put 1 bean seed in each of the 24 cups.
    4. Fill the same 24 cups with another 1/4 cup of the same soil.
    5. Turn on florescent light for plants.
    6. Pour 2 tablespoons of water on plants every 2 days.
    7. Turn florescent light off after twelve hours.
    8. Turn florescent light back on after having it off for twelve hours.
    9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 every day.

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    RESULTS

    The original purpose of this experiment was to find out if organic materials in the soil well actually help the plant grow better.

    The results of the experiment were the plants with organic materials in the soil grew less than the plants with just soil.

    See the table and graph.

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    CONCLUSION

    My hypothesis was that plants with organic materials in the soil well grow better with organic materials in the soil than without. 

    The results indicate that this hypothesis should be rejected because the results show the plants without organic materials in there soil grew much larger than the plants with organic materials in the soil.
     
     

    Because of the results of this experiment, I wonder if I would get different results with a different type of plant. 

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    Research Report

    Plants
     

    INTRODUCTION
    Plant growth is important to all people because we need plants in our diet to survive and the animals we eat also connect with plant life, so in a way if the plants don’t grow we don’t survive. We would die out like all the other animals would. 

    Plant necessities
    Plants have many necessities for instance. Plants need water, soil, air, and sunlight to grow, and to create their food, plants also need minerals like zinc and iron without all of these ingredients the plant would die.
     

    Plant types
    There are many types of plants that help keep are bodies working for instance there is vegetables. Which includes beans, tomatoes, pumpkins, and corn to keep us healthy. There is also fruit, which includes strawberries, blueberries, and bananas that give us the proper nutrients to keep well. Also flowers such as roses, tulips, and petunias. There are also carnivores plants the names of a few of these are Venus flytraps, pitcher plants, rosettes, bladderworts, and butterworts and they help keep are bug population down.
     

    Plant parts
    Plants have three main parts. The first part is the roots they are the part of the plant that seeps up all the water for the plants to grow. The second part is the stem it holds all the food for the plant to eat. The third part is the leaves they let the plant breathe because like all living things plants need air to survive. 
     
     
     

    Food chain
    Plants are the most important part of the food chain even though they are at the bottom. The reason is that after the plant is eaten by an animal, that animal gets eaten by another animal and so on and so on. But because of us poisoning are water when the plant drinks the water the plant is then poisoned and when an animal eats the plant that animal is know poisoned and so on and so on. 
     

    SUMMARY
     Plants are vital to are survival. So if you want to live your life the way it should be stop polluting the earth and are water supply. If you do that we can make are world a better place for everyone and everything on our earth.

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    BIBLIOGRAPHY
    Fujii, Cynthia.          "Soil"                World Book Encyclopedia, 1998.

    Hynes, Erin.            "Compost"          Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000.

    Johnson, Taylor.      "Compost"         World Book Encyclopedia, 1998. 

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    ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
    I would like to thank the following people for their help with my science project. My mom who made sure that all the supplies I needed I got. I thank her for that. I would also like to thank Mr. Newkirk for the bean seeds that he got for me. Without the seeds I couldn’t have done my project.

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