Aja's Seed Story by Annika Gordon

For story of the seed blogpost #5 we had to interview someone on their experience during the project, I choose Aja. When I asked Aja "What have you learned?" She responded with, “I learned that germination is when a seed grows and becomes a sprout.” I then went on to ask what surprised or amazed her the most? She told me “I was actually really surprised about how much the plants had grown because looking at the garden now they are 5 times as big as they were maybe more.” I asked her i anything made her laugh during this experiment and after a bit of thought she old me that that question made her laugh, but she wasn't sure if it was considered part of the project. I went on to ask, what made you pause and think a little deeper and what questions do you have about things you observed or experienced in the garden? she said “how other surgery substances would affect plant growth was something that popped into my head often during this experiment. Would they make the plant grow faster than what we used?” and “I am curious about how competition works in the garden and would like to learn more about this process.” For my last question I asked her what her biggest setback was, and almost immediately she responded with, “most of our plants were very weak or had died from our experiment. The salt caused plants not to sprout and if they did they were very weak. Poor care was also played a huge part in this.”

Aaron Janse's Story

Aaron learned that it's surprisingly easy to grow plants and it's even easier to grow them in a greenhouse. He was really amazed by how fast his plants grew and surprised with how quickly his plant died. He laughed when he saw how large everyone's plants were compared to his. Aaron had to stop and think a little deeper on making a blog and how blogs help you to look back on your experiences. The one question he had about his observations was where his plant went. His biggest setback was consistently watering his plant and the hardest part was keeping all his variables controlled and consistent. Aaron's favorite part about the project was being able to plant it outdoors.

Katie Inman Blog Post #5: peer interview on Kylee Bourbon

#1. What did you learn from this project?
How to properly grow a plant and the that factors influence plants.

#2. What about this project has surprised you?
She was surprised how big her plant grew and how long it survived.

#3.  What made you laugh?
Her group made her laugh because they always kept a good attitude and joked around.

#4. What made you pause and think deeply?
At first they did their experiment wrong, so they had to stop and restart.

#5. What things have you observed about the garden?
She has observed how big all the plants got and how all the living things interact with each other. Also, how abiotic and biotic factors effect the garden.

Bryce Magliari's Story by Whitley Moody

Bryce learned that it takes a lot more than throwing seeds into the ground to grow a plant.  Bryce was amazed by how bossy and controlling teammates can.  Bryce laughed a lot during his project because he had fun with his team while planting his plants. When he noticed that some of the plants weren't growing as fast as others, he stepped back and started to wonder why that was happening.   Bryce's favorite part was seeing how fast and large the plants grew.  Bryce's favorite teammate during this project was Brenden because they worked really well together and both finished the together.  He thought the hardest part of the project was finding all of the supplies for the experiment.

katie inman cell presentation link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_CUbKXfGyb1YbZ613exed8aujwZYZMXBTDZ7xVgUKZg/edit#slide=id.g19e3366daa_0_32

Annika Gordon link to cell analogy

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1liWxoyNfEMKiVXfUnFxb6z4LpPlnxquXCfd7Bq_KpAQ/edit#slide=id.g199442d971_0_20

Blog Post Assignment #4: Katie Inman

Some of the abiotic factors that our plant depends on for survival are water, soil, and sunlight. Other plants, animals, and insects would be an example of biotic factors that affect our plant. We have been seeing insects affecting our plant recently. We think that it is some type of caterpillar because it is munching on the leaves. This is predation, done by a primary consumer. Also, invading grasses have been growing around our plant which is completion for ours because it grows taller it could cover ours blocking the sunlight. This grass could also be taking water and nutrients from the soil. So far, we have not seen any animals affecting out plant but is squirrel could come in and burry their acorn for winter but dig up our plant in the process.

The winner in competition between two plants is the one who grows more or benefits more from the resources, but it is hard to determine which one that is.  You don’t always know what a successful version of the certain plant is like and when you throw limited resources on top of that it is even more difficult.

An example of succession in the garden is when the other plants die, but other ones sprout up where it was. This would be secondary succession because the plants are growing from dirt, where as in primary succession the start with no dirt.

Blog Post Assignment #3 : Katie Inman

Our plant has grown a little taller and the leaves have gotten bigger. It has 3 big leaves on the taller stems and a couple smaller leafs on the lower stems. The stems are like tooth pics and are a dusty green. The plant is smaller than others like it in the garden.  All of the larger leaves have been slightly eaten.

Our plant participates in the movement of water in the biosphere because it uses water to grow and survive. Without water our plant who die. We know that it is a part of the cycle, because it is not dead and it is very smaller to do lack of water.

It also participates in the movement of carbon is the biosphere, by using sunlight. Our plants main source of carbon is from sunlight and it uses this to grow and prosper. When something eats it or it dies it will be transformed to the eater or back into the soil.

Another thing our plant participates in is the movement of nitrogen in the biosphere. Nitrogen in the atmosphere is changed by bacteria then is absorbed by the roots of the plant. When it dies the nitrogen will go back into the atmosphere

Blog Post Assignment #4: Whitley Moody

1. Our plant depends on many abiotic factors including, weather, temperature, and sunlight exposure.  Some biotic factors that affect our plant are other pants competing for sunlight, bugs that eat our plant, and humans who may come and mess with the garden.

2.I know that our plant is engaged in competition because there are many plants surrounding our plant, so it must compete for sunlight, nutrients from the soil, and rain water when it rains.

3.  A "winner" in this situation would be a plant that thrives and begins to produce food.  A "loser" would be a plant like ours that is dying and slowly losing it's leaves.  No, sometimes it isn't clear who is "winning or "losing" because many plants are close to the same size, so it will be hard to determine which is growing better.

4.  Our plant is also being used as a producer which is preventing it from growing.  Some type of animal, a squirrel, worms, bugs, ants, etc. is eating our plant.  This is a good thing for the animals eating our plant because they are being fed, but for our plant it is bad, because it is preventing it from growing.

5.In our garden, an example of succession would be how close and how many plants there are in the planter boxes.  In each planter box there is a whole class worth of plants.  This is probably primary succession because it was built on new land that was fresh.

Blog Post Assignment #4 : Maddie Gong

1. Some abiotic factors our plant needs to survive are water, sunlight, oxygen, soil and temperature. Some biotic factors that affect our plant include animals, insects, bacteria and other plants.

2. We know our plants are engaged in competition because there are many other plants surrounding it nearby. Our plants are competing for nutrients, water, sunlight and space to grow with the other plants.

3. "Winners" and "Losers" are determined by whoever's plant grows the best. It's not always clear on who "wins" and who "loses" because it one may be changing in ways that we can't see or notice. The fact that the competition may be occurring underneath the soil surface, inside the plants or other places we cannot really see makes the determination complicated sometimes.

4. Our plants are also involved in mutualism and herbivory. They are involved in mutualism because they work and benefit from the other plants in the garden. The plants also participate in herbivory because our plants has been producing a food source for little insects or organisms. The organisms are affected by the new sources coming in.

5. In the garden, an example of succession is how close and the amount of plants that are planted. In each planter box, a plant from each group is planted less than a foot away from each other. It seems more like primary succession because our plants weren't grown on damaged land.

Blog Post Assignment #3 : Maddie Gong

1. This week, we noticed a lot of new things about our plants. It has grown a little bit but it didn't grow as much as we had hoped. Compared to the class, our plant is probably the smallest one. Also, our plant has many holes so small bugs, animals or organisms have been eating it. 

2. Our plants participate in the movement of water in the biosphere because our plants need water to grow. Water is one the of the main sources plants need in order to grow and survive. Our plants' roles in the water cycle relate to the changes observed in our plants because they haven't grown that much due to lack of water supply. Last week, our plants grew because it had rained for a couple of days.

3. Our plants participate in the movement of carbon in the biosphere because our plants need sunlight. Like water, sunlight is another main source all plants need to grow. Our plants' roles in the carbon cycle relate to the changes observed in our plants because they haven't grown due to lack of sunlight. Since the weather has been cold and cloudy, the sun hasn't been able to come out.  

4. Our plants participate in the movement of carbon in the biosphere because our plants also need nitrogen to grow. Nitrogen is changed by bacteria and ammonium into nitrates and then absorbed by plants. Our plants' roles in the nitrogen cycle relate to the changes observed in our plants because they haven't grown that much due to lack of producing and consuming nitrates correctly.

Blog Post Assignment #4: Annika Gordon

             Abiotic factors affect plants and animals every day, and most living things depend on some of those for survival. Some of these factors that affect our plant include rain, weather, and temperature. Rain and sun are both essential part of a plants life and without  them, would die,but with too much of either will kill the plant.
           I know that there is compote on for my plant because it is really small compared to the plants surrounding it.The plants around my plant are most likely taking the nutrients that my plant needs to grow bigger, causing it to stay the same size while the other plants grow bigger. My plant is competing for nutrients, water, sunlight, and room in the planter box.
            The "winners" are those organisms that continue to grow and thrive while the "losers" are the ones that either die or do not grow and continue to be healthy. The line between "winners" and "losers" can be very small and not very clear. Sometimes it's between two thriving organisms which can make it hard to chose the "winner" and "loser".
            Some other types of interaction that my plant is involved in are symbiosis, because of its close relationships with the insects that eat it and benefit from doing so, and parasitism, when animals and insects eat my plant limiting its chances at survival.
           In the school garden, succession or something similar is occurring. Evidence, such as the fast growth of new plants and the replacement of grasses with larger plants, the brassica orelacea, both point to secondary succession happening.

Blog Post Assignment #3: Annika Gordon

              This week, 10/17/16, my group and I have noticed several changes in our plants. First, our plant's leaves has grown significantly as well as doubled in number of leaves. Also, we've seen at least 5 holes in the plant. Overall our plant is only about 12 cm tall with about 7-8 leaves all around 6 cm long.
             Our plants participate in the water movement by taking in the water from the earth. By taking in the water it helps the plant grow causing the growth in number of leaves and  height.
           By taking carbon in from the atmosphere, my plant is contributing to the carbon cycle. The plant also takings in and breaks down natural carbon with it's roots.
             My plant also contributes to the nitrogen cycle in a few ways. The plants take in nitrates and ammonium as well as releasing organic residue into the earth.

Blog Post Assignment #3: Whitley Moody

1.  In the past week I have begun to notice many things about our plant. First off, our plant is not growing as well as we hoped.  When we compare it to other plants in our class, ours is probably the smallest.  Also, our plant is half eaten so there are clearly bugs eating our plant.

2.Our plants take in water to grow, and that is the part they play in the water cycle.  Because they take in water, our plant clearly must have not gotten enough water this past week because it was not growing as well as others.

3.Plants release carbon into the air through plant respiration, so our plant is contributing to the carbon cycle. I have a feeling that our plant doesn't release enough carbon to be productive because it is probably dying.

4. Plants consume nitrates through their roots.  Our plant seems to be dying, which means it is probably not consuming nitrates properly.  If our plant was stronger it would give a stronger contribution to the nitrogen cycle.

Story of the Seed Lab Report

9/22/16
Story of the Seed- Broccoli Bunch
Annika Gordon, Katie Inman, Whitley Moody, and Madeline Gong

The purpose of our project was to see if there were other ways to grow types of plants. We came to a major conclusion that plants can grow with different types of waters and lights. This is a significant process to be aware of so you can use other resources in order to grow plants. All the other sections summarize our procedures, what we used to grow the plants, our problems and results in the end. Each of the other sections summarize the background information, our materials, the project’s procedure, our data, results and the flaws in our project.

For the past two weeks, our team has been germinating and growing broccoli seeds. Our hope was to find what variables help the plants grow taller. We used two independent variables: color of light and type of water. We used red light, blue light, and natural light. Also, we used coconut water, salt water, and tap water. Our control group was the plant that had natural sunlight and natural water. We tracked the growth from seed to plant for ten days, and have now moved the broccoli plant to a larger garden where we will continue to monitor the growth of the plant.

Materials
90 ml tap water
90 ml salt water
90 ml coconut water
180 broccoli seeds
900 ml of dirt
180 cm by 180 cm square of red saran wrap
180 cm by 180 cm square of blue saran wrap
9 1300 ml cu
9 200 ml cups
Beaker to measure
9 rubber bands
1 paper clip
1 artificial light source
We didn’t have any special methods, we simply planted the broccoli seeds like normal, watered them and watched them grow.

Steps
1. Label all 9 8 ½ cm cup with the light color and liquid it will be watered with [ex: red light and coconut water is RC]
2. Place 90 mL of soil in each cup
3. Sprinkle 25 broccoli seed in each cup
4. Place 10 more mL of soil on top of the seeds in each cup
5. Water each cup with 30 mL of their designated liquid
6. Place a 20 cm by 20 cm piece of colored plastic sheet over designated cup
7. Secure each plastic sheet with a rubber band around the top of cup making sure it is airtight
8. Poke 10 holes in each plastic sheet on a cup with a paper clip
9. Place all cups together under artificial light
10. Repeat step 5 and 9 daily and make sure you only uncover the ones with a plastic sheets for a maximum of 10 minutes
Some things that we changed from our procedure [which did not help our experiment] were not putting a plastic sheet of clear on the natural light and having them all open to open air for more than 10 minutes. We suggest fully following the procedure for more credible results. Also, we did not water them daily. The reason our procedure was changed was because we did not realize we wouldn’t be in class every day to water, so then we started coming to tutorial to water.

Results
Natural Light
Day 1: Salt 0cm, Tap 0cm, Coconut 0cm
Day 3: Salt 0cm, Tap 0cm, Coconut 1cm
Day 4: Salt 0cm, Tap 2 ¾ cm, Coconut 1 ¼ cm
Day 7: Salt 0cm, Tap 9 ¾ cm, Coconut 6cm
Day 8: Salt 0cm, Tap 11cm, Coconut 6cm
Day 10: Salt 0cm, Tap 12cm, Coconut 6cm





Red Light
Day 1: Salt 0 cm, Tap 0 cm, Coconut 0cm
Day 3: Salt 0 cm, Tap 1 cm, Coconut 1/ 2 cm
Day 4: Salt 0 cm, Tap 4 ¾ cm, Coconut 2 ½ cm
Day 7: Salt 0 cm, Tap 11 ½ cm, Coconut 3 ½ cm
Day 8: Salt 0 cm, Tap 11 ½ cm, Coconut 3 ½ cm
Day 10: Salt 0 cm, Tap 11 ½ cm, Coconut 3 ½ cm

Blue Light
Day 1: Salt 0 cm, Tap 0 cm, Coconut 0 cm
Day 3: Salt 0 cm, Tap 1 cm, Coconut ½ cm
Day 4: Salt 0 cm, Tap 5 ½ cm, Coconut 2 ¼ cm
Day 7: Salt 0 cm, Tap 12 cm, Coconut 3 cm
Day 8: Salt 0 cm, Tap 12 ½ cm, Coconut 3 cm
Day 10: Salt 0 cm, Tap 12 ½ cm, Coconut 3 cm

In the end of the experiment we had a wide variety of results. We found out that the water and light that grew the plants the best were tap water and blue light. We learned that salt water does not grow plants at all and coconut water molds over time. Our hypothesis was partially supported because our data and results showed natural water gave the best plant growth results but blue light was the better light. We didn’t get the results we thought we would because we carried out some of the parts of the experiment incorrectly. During our prep for our experiment, we only covered our blue and red light variables with the designated colored plastic wrap but left the natural light variable without any coverage. We should have covered it with clear wrap so all the variables would get equal air and light. Some improvements we could have made to the design were to make sure each variable got equal amounts of things and to narrow our control group to only one variable because multiple can cause confusion in the data and results. Our findings are important because in the real world, we now know how to grow plants with other types of materials.

As a result of this lab we now know that when plants are watered with coconut water, they tend to become moldy, plants die when watered with saltwater, and the color of light didn’t really affect the growth of the plants because in the end not one color made the plants grow better. But, the different waters affected the growth of the plants, and tap water made the broccoli grow big faster than the other waters, coconut and salt, by a longshot.

http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=3155
On that website it said that blue and red light helped plants grow.The different light has different light wavelengths which have different energy. And this energy is absorbed differently causing differences in growth. So that is where we got the idea to use red and blue for our other light sources. We found that website by searching on google if colored light affect plant growth.

About Our Project

The Story of the Seed Project is a yearlong project where we track the growth of plants from seedling to sprout, and a sprout to a full grown plant. The first two weeks we worked in a group as we experimented with the plants to see what variables would help them grow.  For our project we tested the germination and growth of the broccoli seed.  We tested two variables: types of liquid used to water plant, and color of light plants grow in.  Our natural light tap water plant and our red water tap water were planted in the garden and we are waiting to see how they grow.

Maddie Gong Bio

Hi my name is Maddie. I was born here in San Jose, California. I moved to Willow Glen when I was around 2 years old and have lived here ever since. My dad was born in Mountain View, California while my mom was born in Korea. But most of my family lives in the United States.

I haven't really gardened that much, but sometimes I help my parents with planting flowers in our yard. When I was little my family planted a lemon tree in our backyard and it still gives lots of lemons that we use in food and for lemonade. I don't cook on a regular basis but sometimes I will cook things from pasta to pasteries and help my parents with making dinner sometimes. I think that both of my parents both pretty equal when it comes to gardening, but I think my dad knows a lot about making food from scratch because he's the best cook in my family. 

Katie Inman Bio

My name is Katie Inman. I have lived in San Jose my whole life, but in two different houses. My dad has lived in Willow Glen his whole life and went to WGHS and my grandparents did too. My mom moved to California from Minnesota in her twenties.  Ever two years we go back to Minnesota to visit her side of the family.

At my house we have planting beds on the side yard. Every year we would go to the nursery and get our seeds then plant everything as a team. In them we used to grow tomatoes, carrots, and tried growing pumpkins. We also have a apple tree, orange tree, and Asian pear team  I a couple years later had my own planting beds where i grew strawberries, peas, and more carrots.  I don´t think i liked gardening cause i was a very impatient child. My dad knows a lot about gardening. When he was younger he spent a lot of time at his grandmothers farm. My mom knows a lot about cooking. She has been making things from scratch since she was a little girl. I know how to cook many things because of my mom.  

Annika Gordon Bio

My name is Annika Gordon. I have lived in San Jose California on the same street and in the same house my entire life. My grandparents and cousins live in Indiana, where my dad came from, and my other cousins live in Santa Cruz, where my mom came from.

I have, and still do, garden all the time. I have grown sunflowers, lemons, tomatoes, pumpkins, onions, carrots, borage, and many other things. I have always loved gardening and in between school, dance, and homework I try to garden as often as possible. Gardening gives my a sense of peace and calm, which I struggle to find anywhere else.

My mom taught me how to garden at a young age, and though she didn't know much about it, she inspired me to get a lot better. My neighbors, and close friends, are the ones that really taught me about gardening and cooking, which they know a lot about. I usually just cook simple things like grilled cheese, pasta, and lemonade, but sometimes I like to make my own red sauce and jelly from the plants in my garden. I also love making all sorts of pies and stir fries for the holidays.

Whitley Moody Bio

My name is Whitley Moody.  I was born here in San Jose, California.  I have lived in the same house for my entire life.  My dad was born in Florida, and my mom was born in Los Angeles, so I have family in most parts of the United States.

When I was little, I would garden with my family every spring and summer.  We would grow everything from zucchini to pumpkin plants.  I really enjoyed getting to eat fresh food knowing that I had grown it in my own backyard.  My dad is a really good cook, so he would always find ways to make the fresh food really delicious!  My favorite was when my dad made Caprese Salads with the fresh basil and tomatoes.  Ever since I started playing volleyball and my brother started playing basketball, my family hasn't had time to garden.  I hope that when I get older I will be able to have a garden with my family.  My dad probably knows the most about gardening and making food from scratch since he is the best cook in my family.