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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 6 |
| Time required | Long (a couple of weeks) to Very Long (several weeks to months) |
| Prerequisites | None |
| Material Availability | Readily available |
| Cost | Very Low (under $20) |
| Safety | Adult supervision is required when using the oven. Use caution when handling and disposing of mold. Treat molds according to the same safety rules as outlined for bacteria in the Microorganisms Safety Guide. |
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Sponsor
| Sponsored by a generous grant from Monsanto Fund |
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| * Note: This is an abbreviated project idea, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk. |
Abstract
Soil may look like a bunch of dirt, but good quality soil is actually a complex mixture of dirt, nutrients, microorganisms, insects and worms. What type of benefit do these microorganisms offer a growing plant? You can test this by baking soil in the oven to sterilize and kill the microorganisms. Do plants grown in sterile soil do better than plants in unsterilized soil? What about adding worms to one plant, but not to the other. Will the plant with worms grow better? Some insects are bad for plants, and others are good for plants. Can you design an experiment to figure out which is which? What about mold and fungus? Try adding moldy bread to soil to see how this affects the growth and health of the plant. (VanCleave, 1993, 9–20; Vecchione, 2001, 168–169)Bibliography
- VanCleave, J. 1993. Janice VanCleave's A+ Projects in Biology. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Vecchione, G. 2001. 100 Award-Winning Science Fair Projects. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing.
Variations
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Plant Biology Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2008-11-11 12:29:01
Career Focus
If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring careers in Plant Biology.
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Soil and Plant Scientist With a growing world population, making sure that there is enough food for everyone is critical. Plant scientists work to ensure that agricultural practices result in an abundance of nutritious food in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. |
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