Science experiment need ideas/help.

[Gunther_mag_user]

I have a 49% in my science class. I need to get a semester science project done. I need some Ideas! Something with plants is good, or anything that doesn't involve humans.

ALL help is greatly appreciated, and if you help me pass this class I'll love you forever.

[MoeMag]

[Gunther_mag_user]

Oh man forgot to add that! Science 2 ala 10th grade science. It can be on any topic.

[MoeMag]

hmm...
any "science"
chem, phys, astronomy, biology plant or animal, or geology?

What has been discussed in class? Any particular area the instructor likes (looking for brownie points)?

[Gunther_mag_user]

hmm...
any "science"
chem, phys, astronomy, biology plant or animal, or geology?

What has been discussed in class? Any particular area the instructor likes (looking for brownie points)?

He really likes when people work with plants because there is small room for error. We have been covering genetics lately, but the project about anything. I was considering How much power a battery holds and what gives the most bang for your buck, but plants are what he really likes. I would like to do something on motion or energy or plants beause I know all that stuff.

Edit: chemisty is good too.

[MoeMag]

[Pacifist_Farmer]

Time elapsed photos of similar plants grown in different conditions (light sources, Soils, water levels).

[Skittle]

plants always move toward light so u can see grass move like \ | / during the day. so videotaping plants would be cool.

[tropical_fishy]

Guys, it is TENTH grade, not FOURTH grade. Most people can tell yuo that plants prefer light. It's common knowledge. I don't have time to really give you any ideas, because I have to run out for a bit in a few minutes, but you really should be asking a bigger question than, "do plants move towards sunlight?" Maybe look into xylem and phloem, or the process of photosynthesis. You don't have to break new ground, but your project should focus on more than, "look at the flowers face the sun! Oh, and for my project, I learned that plants don't grow in the dark. Who woulda figured."

[Skittle]

Guys, it is TENTH grade, not FOURTH grade. Most people can tell yuo that plants prefer light. It's common knowledge. I don't have time to really give you any ideas, because I have to run out for a bit in a few minutes, but you really should be asking a bigger question than, "do plants move towards sunlight?" Maybe look into xylem and phloem, or <i> the process of photosynthesis</i>. You don't have to break new ground, but your project should focus on more than, "look at the flowers face the sun! Oh, and for my project, I learned that plants don't grow in the dark. Who woulda figured."

Noone asked <i>if</i> they moved towards the sunlight. Photosynthesis is the subject, so to show how plants gather energy by facing the sun would be a good way to show how efficent plants are. Sense they dont have sunlight 24hrs a day, it's actually pretty cool how they move to face the sun to gather as much energy as they can. Not to mention that if his teacher likes plants, then actually filming the plants and the giving an explination of what is going isint a bad idea.

[topazpaintball]

Guys, it is TENTH grade, not FOURTH grade. Most people can tell yuo that plants prefer light. It's common knowledge. I don't have time to really give you any ideas, because I have to run out for a bit in a few minutes, but you really should be asking a bigger question than, "do plants move towards sunlight?" Maybe look into xylem and phloem, or the process of photosynthesis. You don't have to break new ground, but your project should focus on more than, "look at the flowers face the sun! Oh, and for my project, I learned that plants don't grow in the dark. Who woulda figured."

Well, plants can germinate in the dark, they just don't form any green shoots.

Umm... I was gonna recommend a gauss gun or a micro rail gun, because those are always highly impressive, but I'm lost with plants.

[Pyroboy597]

Another cool thing, which wouldn't really make up a whole lab, is to demonstrate how a plant aborbs water by letting it sit in a vase full of Red food dye. That is always fun.

[Jonneh]

Maybe you could disprove evolution, start with the Second law of thermodynamics, then say the that earth can't possibly be 4+ billion years old.

[thE_mAd_Dr_shOck]

Not all good science is based on math. Most organic chemists would argue that statement (since not even kinetics can explain some reactions) as would many engineers. I can't even think of many great physics innnovations that didn't start out as simple thought experiments, first. Math has its flaws, some of which are huge (ie. statistical reliability and the null limit of the natural log.) In short, both math and science need each other.

But anyway, here'd be a good project for you: Grow a plant and take cuttings of it for cloning. Grow the clones and provide standard, nonvarialbe conditions with the exception of one (ie, one specific fertilizer component such as phosphorous or some crap like that). After growing the plants with these slight variations (don't forget your control!) remove an equal sized chunk from all of the plants at the same time of day, preferably high noon or whatever time the plants recieve the most sunlight. Immidately preform bomb calorimetry on each individual piece. Repeat.

From there you can tell how the variation effects the plant's production of sugars and go into the mechanism for the photoreaction and even some quantum theory (pigmentation, absorbance, absorbitivity, Beer's law and stuff). You could go two ways with this experiment; You could do something like a pure phos vs. pure nitrogen fertilizers or you could see which concentrations of just one component (like phosphorous) produce the best results. In using various concentrations you could do a graph and a linear regression for future predictions of a maximum effective dosage.

If you want to get more technical you can do some simple statistical analysis with confidence intervals. You could also work with "greening" chemicals and relate it all to beer's law and its deviations and flaws.

Anyway, good luck and I hope I helped.

[Cow hunter]

wind tunnel showing effects of aerodynamics. basically, a box made of glass/clear plastic (ends missing) A platform hanging from strings, and a ruler for measuring. Place a model car on platform and have a fan blow onto car, see how far back it moves. for some cool effects use some smoke/colored gas.