Of Mice and Men

Investigating Question:
Does the concentration of salt in the water, affects the germination of the seed?

Purpose:
To see if the salinity of the water affects the germination of the seed, before its put into the soil.

Back Ground Information:
Seed germination is the sprouting or growth of a seed into the start of a plant. When environmental factors such as moisture, temperature, oxygen, and sometimes light are appropriate, a viable seed will begin to germinate.
Salinity (salt-affected) in plants can cause ionic stresses, especially since Na+ (sodium) and Cl- (chlorine) inhibit metabolic processes including protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the process by which cells build proteins. When salt divides in water, sodium and chloride ions separate and then it may harm the plant.
It takes about 7 to 13 weeks for a Phaseolus Vulgaris to be ready to harvest, but in this experiment you only want to know when would it sprout so it will take about 1-2 weeks.

Hypothesis:
If we dip the bean in different salinity of water, then it might effect the germination of the seed.

Because salt water makes the plants weaker and absorb less nutrients, and when sodium and chloride ions separate then it might harm the plants.

Experimental Variables:
Independent variable Salinity of the Water
Dependent variable The germinate of the seed
Control Variables
1 Same kind of salt
2 Same kind of water
3 Same kind of seed
Control Group 0 salinity water
Experimental Group Different Salinity Wateron Seed Germination Lab

Investigating Question:
Does the concentration of salt in the water, affects the germination of the seed?

Purpose:
To see if the salinity of the water affects the germination of the seed, before its put into the soil.

Back Ground Information:
Seed germination is the sprouting or growth of a seed into the start of a plant. When environmental factors such as moisture, temperature, oxygen, and sometimes light are appropriate, a viable seed will begin to germinate.
Salinity (salt-affected) in plants can cause ionic stresses, especially since Na+ (sodium) and Cl- (chlorine) inhibit metabolic processes including protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the process by which cells build proteins. When salt divides in water, sodium and chloride ions separate and then it may harm the plant.
It takes about 7 to 13 weeks for a Phaseolus Vulgaris to be ready to harvest, but in this experiment you only want to know when would it sprout so it will take about 1-2 weeks.

Hypothesis:
If we dip the bean in different salinity of water, then it might effect the germination of the seed.

Because salt water makes the plants weaker and absorb less nutrients, and when sodium and chloride ions separate then it might harm the plants.

Experimental Variables:
Independent variable Salinity of the Water
Dependent variable The germinate of the seed
Control Variables
1 Same kind of salt
2 Same kind of water
3 Same kind of seed
Control Group 0 salinity water
Experimental Group Different Salinity Water

Materials:
0g/mL salinity water
1g/100mL salinity water
2g/100mL salinity water
3g/100mL salinity water
40 Seeds (Same type)
4 Petri Dish
4 Containers

Procedure:
1. Have all the materials ready and first have four 200mL containers ready and pour 100mL of water into each of the container.
2. Then measure 1 grams, 2 grams, and 3 grams of salt and pour them each into a different container, but leave one without salt cause it will be the control group.
3. And put 10 Phaseolus Vulgaris Beans into each different container.
4. Leave the Phaseolus Vulgaris Beans in there for about 1-2days.
5. After 1-2days take it out and put them in petri dish, and separate them in different areas, but put the same types together. So you would have 10 in each petri dish.
6. Have 2-3 layers of paper towel on the petri dish before you put the Phaseolus Vulgaris Bean on it. And put the lid back on
7. Wait for a week and collect data afterwards.

Observation:
After 5 days leaving the bean in different petri. The 3% salinity one died within 2 days. And the others didn’t do so well either. All of them died and even if they are not dead they are in a really bad condition, even the pure water one. All of them had rotten.

Conclusion:
The concentration of salt in the water does effect the seed germinating. It slows the process of sprouting and kills the seed. This happened because like my background information said salt water could cause ionic stresses making the seed weaker so it doesn’t sprout, and there were warms on the seeds.

Evaluation:
There is a lot of weakness of this lab. For example you can’t make sure all the beans have the same amount of condition, maybe one was bitten or some of them were bitten by warms or bugs already. And you can’t make sure all the petri have the same amount of air going in and out. Temperature isn’t really one of the weakness of the lab but it kind of is, because the science room temperature isn’t the best for the seed to sprout. This lab can be done again, and doesn’t have a limit to how much a person can try it. The experimental error of this lab was that the beans that we used weren’t the best quality and the beans had warms on it, so maybe if the lab was to be repeated they could put it in a close space area. The weakness of the procedure was that it didn’t tell us how you should measure your salt percentage.

Limitations & Weaknesses Significance of the effect on accuracy &/or precision Improvement
Seed died It died so we cant really observe what really happened to the seeds. May need more caring of the seed, cause we only check like 2 times a day.
Warms start growing Damaged our seeds, so we can’t observe what happened and we had to throw it away. Have a better concealed space so that no warms or bad air can get in.
Sun light Seed grows better when there is sunlight, because I learned before that the seeds would follow the sunlight. Maybe we could have light shinning on the seeds so it might grow faster.
Concealing of the Petri Dish Different oxygen or the mount of oxygen going into the petri dish. Have a better petri dish that conceal the same amount of air inside, or put the petri dish in a really concealed space.
Experimental Errors Significance of the effect on accuracy &/or precision Improvement
Time because we cant check on the seeds every hour or every certain time Have a camera take a video of the week and know what really happened to the seeds. Have someone check on the seed every some time.
Control of Variables Significance of the effect on validity Improvement
An control group was used, the one without salt water was the control group It didn’t really matter because all of our seeds died. Have all the seeds in close space area that no warms or bug can get in.

Citation:
Keating, Richard C. "Germination." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Annals of Botany." Effect of Salinity on Germination and Seedling Growth of TwoAtriplexspecies (Chenopodiaceae). N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

"Publications." How Plants Cope with Salinity. N.p., July 2005. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.