Nina Doering
2/08
We had a great project, but we misplaced days 1-6, so that data was lost. We told Mr. Davis about it and he said to just show the data of the final mass of the plants. So, we decided instead of starting with Day 1, we were going to start with Day 7, because that’s the first day we had data for.
My Lab Report
Experiment #1:
The effect of Urea on the growth of bean seedlings.
1. Final measurements of the Control Group:
CONTROL 1: 7.5cm, CONTROL 2: 0cm
Final Measurements of our plants:
UREA A: 0cm, UREA B: 17cm, SODA WATER A: 13cm, SODA WATER B: 15cm. Obviously the urea actually really helped, better than the Soda Water, and the Control Group. Even though UREA A didn’t grow at all, something went wrong, and a lot of groups didn’t have any of their plants grow at all! Urea usually works quite well, B is proof!
2. Urea contains nitrogen, which is essential to all plants’ growth. So, Urea is usually very helpful to plants, to keep them healthy and make them grow a lot. [Info from wisegeek.com] Urea is an organic chemical compound which essentially is the waste produced when the body metabolizes protein. It is a compound not only produced by humans but also by many other mammals, as well as amphibians and some fish. As wisegeek.com states, “Urea was the first natural compound to be synthesized artificially using inorganic compounds— a scientific breakthrough.” It is created from synthetic ammonia and carbon dioxide, and can be produced as a liquid, or even a solid.
Experiment #2
The effect of Soda Water on the growth of bean seedlings.
1. Final Measurements of Control Group:
CONTROL 1: 7.5cm, CONTROL 2: 0cm
Final Measurements of our plants:
UREA A: 0cm, UREA B: 17cm, SODA WATER A: 13cm, SODA WATER B: 15cm. I think the soda water actually did help it. It wasn’t quite as effective as Urea, but it was more effective than the control group plants, due to the carbon dioxide it gave the plant, which helps it turn the carbon dioxide into oxygen. A few of the side effects were leaves & cotyledons shriveling up, and moldy soil. But overall, I’d say soda water was a pretty good choice.
2. As jrscience.com says, “The filtered water plants will grow most rapidly, as filtered water has fewer contaminants and more nutrients” which obviously would help the plants grow. Soda water has a PH of 3.5, definitely more on the acidic side than pure water, with a 7.0. Soda water’s ingredients are Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, quinine. So, it doesn’t really sound like those would help the plant stay healthy and give it nutrients. I’m assuming that the high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors probably rotted the leaves and cotyledons, which would cause them to shrivel up and not be as healthy as pure water. As for the mold, anything would mold if tonic/soda water was poured on it, due to probably the corn syrup, and artificial flavors. For example, if you left something out for a long time that had high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors in it, it would definitely mold. So, our plant with soda water which contained the same ingredients is no different.
