The independent variables are going to be sun light, water, oxygen, temperature and pH levels. The dependent variables are going to be the growth of the seeds in the experiment. Controlled variables will be the Petri dishes, tissue paper, the seeds used and the amount of water provide for the seeds.
2. MATERIALS & METHOD
2.1 Apparatus
- Petri dishes
- Carrot seeds
- Tissue paper
- Pipette
- Beaker
2.2 Method
Fill each dish with tissue paper and place 5 seeds per petri dish. Then set the conditions for each dish. Place one dish in light, another in artificial light, then one in darkness, cover one dish with a lid to eliminate oxygen, place one dish to the refrigerator. The temperature is about +7°C. Each condition had two dishes that are being watered with 1ml & 3ml of water. The pipette had an error of ± 0.1cm3.
3.RESULTS
TABLE 1.
Graph 1.
Graph 2.
3.1 Description
The first table shows us generally in which conditions germination occurred. Which shows us that in light the seeds germinate definitely. From the graphs we can see that water has a clear dependency on the growth of the seeds. The more water the seeds got the more visible growth they seemed to produce.
4. CONCLUSION
4.1 Support of Hypothesis
The data confirms the hypothesis up to a certain degree. From the results it is visible that light plays a crucial role in the germinating process. The seeds germinated in day light and did not germinate in the darkness. Also of course water was a crucial component in germination. There did occur some conflicts with the prediction of oxygen. However the seeds did not need any type of nutrients from soil since only tissue paper was being used. Another factor that was discovered was suitable temperature. The seeds that remained in cold did not germinate.
4.3 Explanation
Therefore we can say that seeds need oxygen in order to rehydrate the dry tissue of the seed in order to begin germination. Also oxygen must be available in aerobic respiration. However what can agree with the hypothesis is the fact that some seeds do respire anaerobically if oxygen is not available but then again the ethanol produced reaches its toxic levels. Suitable temperatures are needed for germination. Since germination involves enzyme activity nevertheless at very low temperatures enzyme activity is too slow. This would explain why the seeds in the refrigerator did not germinate.
5.EVALUATION
5.1 Difficulties
Most of the results were highly inaccurate. There should have been more seeds at use then there would have been more chances of seeing germination. The biggest growth occurred in the Petri dish without oxygen. However based on previous knowledge this seems contradictory. Germination process cannot occur without oxygen. The lids that were on top of the Petri dish did not conceal all the air from coming into the dish. The dish worked as a greenhouse for the seeds. Providing warmth and moisture and ideal conditions for germination. Whenever the seeds were watered oxygen got into the Petri dish. The seeds should have had another layer of tissue paper on top in each condition to trap the moisture. Since under the artificial light the water condensed easily and only dried the seeds therefore the germination process could not begin.
5.2 Solutions
All of the petri dishes should have been covered with a lid to keep the moisture since the seeds were not watered regularly. Some kind of apparatus should have been developed in order to keep the air out. So that the seeds would be in a compact environment without oxygen.
