Background

How can you tell if your houseplants need fertilizer? How well would your plants grow if you added twice the recommended amount of fertilizer to those growing in your house or garden? What plants are the birds eating in your backyard, and are they eating seeds or fruits? How hot does the soil get in the sun next to a tree compared to the soil in the shade, and how does this effect root growth or germination of seeds dispersed there? These are questions that you could ask every day about phenomena you see in the world around you. But how might you answer these questions? The Botany Independent Investigation is your opportunity to study some small part of your natural world and to answer one of your own questions.

There are four main steps to your project:

1. Select and outline a research problem
2. Design an investigation
3. Conduct the investigation
4. Write the project report

 There are several skills you will need to develop and use. The first skill is to formulate a research problem that you can answer based on your observations of the world. You are not expected to win a Nobel Prize with your work! J  It is important however, that the project be well designed and conducted properly, and that you choose a project that is of interest to you. Once you have an idea for a research problem you would like to study, decide on the method of investigation. You must be able to complete your project with limited materials and time. Your proposal to me will discuss in detail what you are going to study and exactly how you are going to set up your investigation. Set up your study a begin collecting data systematically and thoroughly. The data you collect will be processed, interpreted, and then incorporated into a "write-up" of the results of your investigation. The final skill involved is the writing of the report.

First choose an area of interest. Do you like to work outdoors, or indoors possibly a greenhouse? Do you like ecology, physiology or cell biology? Do you like to work with flowers or leaves? Next observe, and ask questions about a situation related to your area of interest. Select one question and form your research problem based on this question. A good research problem is simple, specific, and feasible in regard to your time and materials available. The entire project will be based on your observations.

There is an infinite number of projects from which you could choose. Consider plants and the soils in your community. Do all types of soils absorb rainfall at the same rate? Do all soils hold the same amount of rainfall? Is the amount of water that can be held related to any particular characteristic of the soil? Does soil type make any difference in plant growth? What happens to the size of individual plants if they are crowded in a pot with limited space? All these questions can lead to different independent investigations. See the end of this handout for additional ideas.

Research Questions

Consider the following research questions. Some of them are workable, some of them are not.

Question 1. What will happen if I play soothing music versus rock-and-roll music to my plants--will plants grown in rock-and roll music be as healthy as plants grown in soothing music? This question is unacceptable. All conditions of the experiment must be kept constant except for the one being tested. To isolate the two groups of plants and then to hold all of the other conditions constant and identical is an impossible task given your resources to work with.

Question 2. How do different amounts of fertilizer affect the growth of corn plants-- would the plants with the most fertilizer given to them be the largest? This is acceptable (but kinda boring!) as long as the experiment is set up properly. Include a pot with no fertilizer given to the plants to see if fertilizer has any effects on plant growth.
 
 

Designing Your Investigation

You will turn in a proposal for your investigation. I will give you a date! Your proposal should focus on what you intend to study and how you will go about it. It should begin with an Introduction that includes the general problem, background information, and the question you are attempting to answer. Following this you should have a Methods section with a detailed outline of the materials and equipment needed to complete your project. In this section, you should also include a description of each of the methods that you intend to use.

Use the following checklist to evaluate your proposal

INTRODUCTION

•      What is the specific question you will study?

•     What is your rationale for choosing the problem? I.e., What made you think of this idea?

•     Where are you going to work? ( I really want you to work here at TC in the greenhouse!)
•     How are you going to investigate your problem? Give detailed descriptions of your methods and how you are going to set up your study.
•     What are you going to measure (height, number, size?) and how often are you going to measure or sample?
•     Do you have enough samples to allow you to average your results?
•     What materials and equipment do you need to complete your investigation?
•     Will the data you are going to collect actually let you answer the question you have asked?
•     Are your control and variable(s) setups clearly defined?
•     Does your schedule allow you enough time to complete the project and write up the report?

Keep a notebook with all of your observations and measurements. Make certain that you write everything down-- do not think you will remember the information Date each entry and include other references such as which pot or plant you are observing. You should average and graph all of your raw data for easy interpretation.
 
 

Writing The Final Report

There should be four sections to your report: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. The Introduction and Materials and Methods sections should be similar to what you included in the proposal. However, you should include any changes that resulted from conducting the project.

The Results section should begin with an overall picture of all the results you have found and the general trends that have shown up (e.g., the birds ate more red berries than blue berries during the morning hours). In this section you should include your tables and graphs, but not your pages of notes kept throughout the project (attach those to the end of the report). Avoid analyzing the significance or apparent meaning of the data in this section--leave that for Discussion.

In the final section, the Discussion, you should refer back to the data that you present in the Results section, but do not repeat the data. How do your results help explain what happened in your study -- how do your results help answer your original question (or why they don't help) Avoid making unjustified conclusions -- restrict your conclusions to the to the experiment you completed. Do not make broad , all encompassing generalizations based on your results. For example, if you find that lettuce seeds germinate at a faster rate in red light than in any other color do not generalize that all kinds of seeds will germinate at the greatest rate in red light. Finally do not make unjustified speculations, e.g., because the lettuce seeds germinated at a faster rate in the red light, lettuce plants will also better in red light than in sunlight.

In addition, you will need to analyze your data that you have collected using the appropriate statistical test. This is important because in order to come to a conclusion whether your stated hypothesis is supported or not you need to determine whether the differences between your treatment groups and the control were due to your stated hypothesis (treatment) or due purely to random chance (null hypothesis). You will need to run the appropriate t-test (unpaired or paired) between each dependent variable data set and the appropriate control data set for that dependent variable. Check out the "statistical t-test page for more information.

You may want to use the following checklist to organize your report. I will use it to grade your report.

• Does your title indicate the content of the report?
• Have you clearly stated the problem or question you have studied?
• Have all your methods been described concisely and accurately?
• Have measurements or observations been made adequately for all variables in your project?
• Have you omitted all interpretations and conclusions from the results section?
• Have all the results related to the research problem been reported in a concise manner?
• Has the data been processed into a useful form (graphs or tables) 
• Have you done the appropriate statistical tests to determine if your data is significant and supports your treatment hypothesis or is it not significant and the data supports the null hypothesis (random chance).
• Are your graphs, pictures and tables drawn and labeled clearly and properly?
• In your discussion, have all your reported results been interpreted and discussed in relation to your original question?
• Have you stated your conclusions based on your results?
• Have you pointed out possible errors or biases?
• Have you written all of your sections in the most concise manner possible?
• Have you checked your spelling and grammar?

The "Strings" or restrictions that are attached to this assignment:

1. Make certain you can obtain the equipment or materials to complete the project. TC will supply pots, soil, seeds (peas, beans, corn, radish or sunflower), fertilizer, and bench space in the TC Plant Science Greenhouse to grow your plants.
2. Make certain that you will have adequate time to complete the project. For instance, do not study the life cycle of an oak tree! J
3. Creativity will be rewarded but is not essential. What is important that you make many careful observations while your plants are growing and that you think about your results and what they could mean. Measurements are part of your complete set of observations. When selecting a project don't be to ambitious.
4. You must submit a one page proposal . It should include a). what you are going to do, b). what materials are needed, c). where you are going to keep your plants, d). a brief schedule of completion, and how you are going to set up the project. 
5. Please use the Investigation planner form that prompts you for all the main variables of the project, i.e., Title, Hypothesis, Prediction, Independent Variable, Treatment Groups, Replications within each group, Control Treatment, Dependent Variables, Constants (controlled variables)

1. You must grow a minimum of 15 plants. (in 3 to 5 pots)
2. You must measure at least twice per week
3. You must have the same number of plants growing in each pot (3-5 plants per pot) (unless you are conducting a plant crowding study)
4. Fertilize all of your plants with a general purpose fertilizer such as Osmocote 14-14-14 or Peters Professional Plant Food making sure to treat all plants with identical amounts (unless you are doing a fertilizer study where you would fertilize according to treatment level)
5. Keep your plants in a warm, brightly lit south facing window, or the TC Biology/ Agricultural Science Greenhouse J . Greenhouse is open from 7:30am - 5:00 pm. Mon- Fri. Not open on weekends. Do necessary operations on Fridays.
6. Take frequent photos of your setup and your plants during the study to include in your report. Use digital cameras when possible. (I have cameras for you to use)
7. Water as necessary--test the soil with your finger. If the soil is moist 1 inch below the surface then you don't need to add water.
8. Plant seeds no more than 0.5" below the soil surface.
9. Establish that all of the plants are the same age.
10. Start your project ASAP (after I approve it) because the plants may DIE and you will need to start over!

You don't have to choose one of these--be creative! Look in your text or look at plants to generate an idea. The best way would be to walk outside and look at plants, trying to find anything unusual about the plants, how they are effected by the environment , or how they effect the environment or other organisms. Make observations and ask questions to help you think of a problem to investigate.

• Do NOT do a grafting project. (Those knives can do nasty things to the human body & they take to long)
• Do NOT do a project growing plants in the light and dark. (I think we know what will happen!)
• Do NOT do a project about talking to or playing music to your plants. (Pseudo-science)

There are an infinite number of possible projects. Use your imagination, but remember to choose a project that asks just ONE question.

• How will crowding effect plant growth?
• Compare the growth of plants in: Different types of soils, or light intensities, or color(s) of light, or amounts of moisture in the soil, or sources of water
• What will happen to plants if grown in different types and/or concentrations of: herbicide or fertilizer, individual nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous , or potassium?
• What will happen to plants if grown in different types and/or concentrations of: Plant hormones i.e., auxin, gibberellin, or ethylene?
• How will the following effect plant growth: cigarette smoke, sugar, salt, caffeine, vitamins, pollutants, soil pH, temperature, acid rain, temperature or humidity.
• What happens to the size of a root system if the leaves are cut off of a plant?
• What is the effect of grazing (or clipping) on the growth of a grass plant?
• Do larger seeds germinate and grow faster than smaller ones?