DATA COLLECTION & PROCESSING
Aspect 1: Recording Raw Data:
Qualitative observations: (Group “3 Guys and Vlad)
March 3: No growth. (Day 1)
March 4: No growth. (Day 2)
March 5: Kentucky Wonder #2 sprouts. (Day 3)
March 8: Golden Wax #2 explodes, Pencil Pod #2 and Stringless Green #1 begins to sprout. (Day 4)
March 9: Kentucky Wonder #5 and Pencil Pod #1 begins to sprout. (Day 5)
March 10: Pencil Pod # 3 sprouts, Kentucky Wonder # 2 grows to 10 cm, 60° (Day 6)
March 11: Kentucky Wonder #2 dies, rest of beans that sprouted look close to dying. (Day 7)
March 12: All Golden Wax beans explode; sprouted beans have not grown enough to measure, all look close to dying. (Day 8)
March 15: All beans die. (Day 9)
March 16: All beans dead. Beans rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise (Day 10)
March 17: All beans dead. (Day 11)
Chart 1.1
Chart 1.2
Chart 1.3
Chart 1.4
Chart 1.5
Aspect 2: Processing Raw Data:
Average Bend Degree Sample Calculation:
Chart 2.1
Standard Deviation of Bean Data Sample Calculation:
Chart 2.2
Chart 2.3
Aspect 3: Presenting Processed Data:
Graph 3.1
Graph 3.2
Graph 3.3
Graph 3.4
Graph 3.5
Make Inferences About Data:
The data shows that the beans generally increase their tilt to the right, where the light source is. This shows that plants grow towards a light source, which in this case would be the sunlight. The data also shows that when the beans were rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise (to the left) on March 16, the beans would have a sharp tilt right the next day, in doing so the stems become upright, showing that the stems grow against gravity. This is a display of negative gravitropism, plant stems/trunks grow against gravity and maintains its upright position. However, the standard deviation of the data is too high, every point overlaps each other. This makes the data inconclusive and thus no conclusion can be drawn.
CONCLUSION AND EVALUATION
Aspect 1: Conclusion:
In the experiment, plant tropism and outside stimuli of plants was investigated. In the experiment, it is found that plants respond to light stimuli by growing towards the light source. If one was to look at Charts 3.1 – 3.5, one would find that the bend degree to the right gets higher each day. The light source in this experiment was a window to the right of the bean plants. The beans steadily growing right prove that plants grow towards a light source, showing phototropism. In the experiment, it is also found that when the plants are tilted to the left 90 degrees, they would grow heavily to the right the next day, maintaining their upright position. If one was to look at Charts 3.1 – 3.5, one would find a sharp increase in bend degree on March 17, the day after the beans were rotated 90 degrees to the left. This proves that bean plants grow against gravity, even when external forces suddenly change the orientation of the plants, they still grow upright. However, the data’s standard deviation is too high to make a valid conclusion. On Charts 3.1 – 3.5, one can see that the standard deviation of each chart overlaps with each other, meaning the bend degree could be a coincidence and there could have been no correlation. The data then is inconclusive and no conclusion can be drawn.
Aspect 2/3: Evaluate the Procedure/Improving Experimental Design:
The experiment did not allow for the collection of sufficient data. Many factors were at play in making this lab inconclusive. First off, the amount of data collected was staggering, it makes processing the data harder and much of it was unnecessary. Instead of 8 groups of data, 3 groups should be used, each with 5 trials. This would make it a total of fifteen trials for each bean, more than enough to give results. Secondly, each group measured their beans differently and on different days, the quantitative data collected is filled with holes and gives incoherent results. All the bean measurements should be made by one person and the method of measurement should be uniform. Thirdly, most kidney beans did not show any signs of growth and only a few sprouted. This gave no results while being a waste of time and energy. Kidney beans should be omitted from the experiment and replaced with soy beans; soy beans grow faster and do not take long to germinate. This would give conclusive results to plant tropism, unlike the kidney beans. Lastly, the presence of fluorescent lighting in the experiment room may have influenced the beanstalk’s growth as there are now two light sources in the environment. The extra light source could have changed the direction of bean growth towards it instead of the intended light source (the sunlight) and thus directly impacted the success of this experiment. Place beans in a room with only one light source, sunlight to the right of the plants, this could make the results more coherent. With these changes in place, the lab would be better and give better results.