Light
Purpose- To demonstrate light is essential for plant growth.
- To learn that light is only one of many limiting factors of plant growth.
The class will grow their own maize plants in light and dark conditions and evaluate how the level of illumination influences plant growth. Students will observe the plant size, color of the leaves and increase in biomass.
Essential Questions
How is light important to plants?
Sub-questions
Is light a limiting factor to growth?
Are the plants able to grow without light?
Do the plants need sunlight specifically (will incandescent or fluorescent light suffice)?
How is light related to energy in plants?
Do plants grow at night?
Student Outcomes
- Students will understand how to formulate a reasonable hypothesis
- Students will know how to set up a simple biological experiment using maize plants
- Students will gain skills in scientific observation
- Students will learn to interpret experimental results
- Formulating hypotehsis
- Testing hypothesis with experiment
- Planning and perfomrance of the experiment
- Presentation of the results and their interpretation
Approximate total amount of time necessary for the experiment is 20-24 days. There can be slight variation in duration of each part of the experiment due to differences in local conditions.
- Germination:
- Preparation for seed germination 1-2 class periods
- During germination, water daily and record germination progress– 10 minutes per day for 7 days.
- Cultivation:
- Preparation of the experimental system and planting 1-2 class periods
- During cultivation, water daily and record plants growth factors- 10 minutes per day for 11 days.
- Harvest:
- Preparation of the plants for drying 1 class period
- Drying:
- Place plants in drying oven for 8-12 hours at 90°C
- Evaluation/Interpretation:
- Record final results, review hypothesis, answer essential questions 1-2 class periods