Variables
The fixed variable: in this experiment is rate of heat,
Independent: the mass and type of soil.
Dependent: is the mass of water, humus, CaCO3 and pH.
Material Used
- Beakers.
- Soil from pathway, meadow and transition, between 1-15cm and after 15cm.
- Potassium chloride solution.
- 10% hydrochloric acid.
- pH paper.
- Test tubes.
- Teaspoon
Methods
I) Finding Amount of water:
Take soil from three different places first place will be Transition, second Pathway and third is Meadow take in the height from 1-15 cm and after 15cm for each soil. After what take beakers and measure the weight of them, then put soils for every tube. One, tube for each type of soil and for each difference in height measure the weight and take out the weight of tubes to get exact weight of soils.
Heat up breakers to reduce water from the soil. Measure mass of breakers and the mass of soil after heating up, subtract mass of breaker from mass heated up soil, to get real mass of soil.
In order to get mass of the water subtract the mass of the soil before heating up and after. Write down results.
II) Finding Amount of humus:
Repeat the procedure of the finding amount of water, in order to find amount of humus. Only beakers have to be changed to the smaller beakers. Write down results.
III) Finding pH of the soil:
- Add 10 cm³ of potassium chloride to one teaspoon of soil.
- Shake the test tube, and wait till solutions becomes clean, test pH using indicator paper
- Write down results
IV) Finding the Amount of CaCO3:
- Add 10% of HCl to soil sample on a Test tube.
- Observe, and using the table given (appendix) to find the amount of CaCO3 in the soil.
Data Collection
Here are results of Soil 1-15 cm:
Amount of humus:
Before heating (g) After heating (g)
(mass before heating – mass after heating) (g)
Amount of water:
Before heating (g) After heating (g)
(mass before heating – mass after heating) (g)
And here results of after 15 cm:
Amount of humus:
Before heating (g) After heating (g)
(mass before heating – mass after heating) (g)
Amount of water:
Before heating (g) After heating (g)
(mass before heating – mass after heating) (g)
Conclusion and evaluation
As observation shows the lowest amount of water have pathway. This can be caused by people, bicycles, cars who walk their day by day. And can be reason why plats can’t growth freely there and why so little types of species growing there. Observation of meadow showed that it has most amount water and because of that it have most amounts of spices and development of plants. The same case can be observed under 15cm too. Meadow has the richest plants and their growth is the highest. Turning to humus, meadow has it less then pathway. Pathway and transition soil are near in percentage while meadow has less. Deeper in the soil observed the percentage of humus in the pathway soil increases while in both, transition and meadow it lowers. This again causes trouble for the growth and developing of plants. The pH value is the same for all soils which proves that neutral soil is the best solution to growth for plants.
The CaCO3 content is highest again in the pathway soil, while in the meadow it is the lowest. Knowing that the meadow was much richer with plant species conclusion can be that lower percentage of limestone is better for the life of the plant. Having high limestone percentage can harm the plant.
