I need help to select and research an idea of ​​my science project

[deleted-624639]

Greetings!
Well, I have to prepare a science project that'll help my community. More than something theoretical, it must be something practical (With a prototype / experiment)
I've identified some problems in my community with a (Maybe posible) solution, I would like to know which solution / topic is the most viable and if some resources could be spent to investigate.

- Problems with pesticides.
Pesticides often harm the soil and sometimes the people who eat the food that was sprayed with these substances.
· The solution in which I have thought is to work on a natural repellent that can scare away the most common pests of rice and beans, but I think it is something unreal: /

- Oil pollution.
* Well, honestly I have not yet thought of a possible solution, but I think it's a somewhat worn issue, I do not know: /

- Streets with excess of cars passing and without traffic lights.
* I have thought of a device that indicates when the cars are going to pass.

- Pollution by C02
* I thought of a paint that absorbs these gases, but there is a company that does just that. XD

- Electronic devices that end up in the dumpster.
* Without ideas.

- An extremely large and polluted lake.
* Without ideas.

I would like you to tell me which problem would be best to treat and where / how I could investigate to try to create a functional solution. I have 1-2 months to create it.

Thank you very much! (Please forgive my bad English, I'm from D.R.)

[SciB]

Hi Daniel,

D.R. Dominican Republic??

You have a lot of good ideas for a science project to help your community and I think that is a wonderful thing to do. But as you discovered, coming up with a workable plan for doing such a project is difficult. I would suggest for a start that you run through the Scibuddies project Wizard if you haven't already done so and check out the ideas for projects there. You may be able to see something related to one of your community ideas.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/search?s=project+wizard

Once you have a little more of a specific idea what area you want to work in, we can help you choose a good hypothesis and set up the necessary experiments to test it.

Do some more reading and thinking and get back to us--but don't wait too long. Projects always take longer than you think they will and you want to do a good job.

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Thanks for answering!
Yep, I'm Dominican.

I was reviewing some project ideas and I think what I'm going to concentrate on is this:

- Since my country owes a large part of its economy to agriculture, I am thinking of devising a project to improve it.
I want to see if I can create natural fertilizer and pesticide to prevent soil damage to the waters and I will propose this to facilitate farming: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ronmental- science / smarter-farming-with-aerial-photo-analysis

This will be my plan of action, where and how should I investigate to start experimenting with the natural fertilizer and pesticide? (It's possible?)

From the project ideas that inspired me are these:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ilizer-use
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... gal-growth
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... o-analysis

[SciB]

Hi Daniel,

That's a great idea to try and improve agriculture in your country through green technology. For thousands of years before chemical fertilizers were invented, farmers improved the fertility of the soil with animal manures, composting and crop rotation. Many countries with limited budgets for fertilizers and pesticides still use these methods and they are mostly successful on a small scale.

Mega-farms in the U.S. are the ones that use vast amounts of expensive chemical fertilizers, herbicides, GMO seeds and pesticides which may pollute the environment, kill beneficial insects and can destroy adjacent crops.

The most hopeful area now that I have been studying is the soil microbiome. I'm sure you have heard the word 'microbiome' in the news for a long time and all it means is the population of bacteria, fungi and viruses that inhabit a specific area, whether it be the human gut or the soil.

The soil microbes, especially fungi, are turning out to be incredibly important for the growth of 80-90% of the world's crops. So, what could be done to create a better home for these beneficial microbes? First, stop using artificial fertilizers and tons of chemical sprays. If the farmers in your country are already using manures and compost and non-chemical methods of insect control then all you need to do is find out what types of soil fungi are best for certain crops and try to create the conditions that favor them. You can, in some cases, buy cultures of beneficial fungi as samples and try them to compare treated with untreated crops to determine whether the microbial inoculants give a better yield. Sometimes, just a simple change like adjusting the pH of the soil or adding lime or some trace elements that are lacking can create the right environment for the soil microbiome to flourish.

Do some reading online about this and see if it is something you can get excited about. I think it has great potential. It is easy to do, not expensive and does not pollute. Nature has been using this method of microbial symbiosis for millions of years, so it has certainly been tested to work!

Post again with your ideas and we can go from there.

Regards,

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Howdy!
I like this idea a lot! Biology is the science that I like the most, but I have some doubts about this:

Can the soil microbiome ward off pests or will it only work to grow crops quickly?

What green alternatives to repellents / pesticides are there?

is my objective to see how to make microbiomes grow in crops without intervention or to achieve an environment in which they can be applied and grow well?

I'll see if I get a fungi crop, but how should I apply it to the crops to analyze them?

Is a little more than a month enough to achieve all this?

The good thing is that I have access to my school's laboratory , Should I get some samples of soil or crops to experiment?
I'll continue looking for information while, thank you very much!

[SciB]

Hi Daniel,

I'm glad my suggestion got you interested. This is a great area of biology and really hot right now.

You asked a lot of questions and they are all good ones. Do you have a couple of hours to talk? Didn't think so. Well, you have access to a lab--that's good, but limited time--not so good.

Beneficial fungi exist naturally but farmers would like to have something they could add to the soil to boost production or make plants more resistant to disease. This could be some 'additive' that would enhance the fungi already in the soil or it could be an inoculum of different fungi that would supplement and improve the existing ones to make the crops grow better.

Do some more reading about soil fungi symbiosis with food plants. You will soon see the term 'mycorrhizae' which is the technical name of fungi that are associated with plant roots. Now there are two ways this can happen. The fungal hyphae which are kind of like the 'roots' of the fungus (although technically they are NOT roots) are associated with the plant's roots and that's how the exchange of nutrients happens symbiotically--both fungus and plant benefit.

Now the cool thing about mycorrhizae [you need a microscope for this!] is that they can actually enter the cells in the plant's roots to get direct access to the system. This is called an endo-mycorrhizal fungus--the prefix 'endo' just means inside, referring to the fact that the fungal 'roots' have penetrated inside the plant's cells. You can see this with a microscope. Look online. There is lots about this.

The other type of fungus is called ecto-mycorrhizal because it associates on the outside of the roots--'ecto' means outside.

Ok, enough technical jargon--for now. If you want to understand the papers and articles on the net, however, you are gonna have to learn the correct terms.

So, what experiments would you like to do? A month is barely long enough because with plants they need to grow and flower or make fruit or seeds, or something that you can measure and compare like height or leaf surface area. See if you can come up with something that can quickly boost the soil fungi. Usually this is the same thing that makes plants grow well--compost, organic matter, healthy balance of soil pH and composition. What you need, then would be a chemical compound that stimulates the soil fungi specifically.

Alternatively there are soil 'probiotics' that you can purchase that claim to boost plant growth by adding the proper fungi to the soil. This might be your best bet because it should work fairly quickly [read the claims carefully!!] and you can see the effects on plant growth simply by measuring height or weighing the plants at the end of the experiment.

Post again with what you think you want to try and we can help you set up a hypothesis and some good experiments and statistics to test it.

Good luck!

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Greetings sybee!
Due to the time difference I can not take a couple of hours to talk: /

I've already been reading about Fungi Symbiosis and from the articles that I saw I found out about a couple of things.
I found that "metagenomic analysis" I am interested in applying it but I think that maybe I need an advanced laboratory.

I'm interested in trying to inoculate another type of fungi to see if it makes crops grow better and with more resistance to diseases / pests. Is it possible to extract fungi directly from the earth to inoculate another?

By the way, I saw that there are fertilizers that do precisely what I want to achieve with the experiment, will not that be a problem?

[SciB]

Hi Daniel,

Fungi are everywhere--some good, some bad. Yes, you could get some from soil but what is your hypothesis going to be?

Some soil fungi are good symbiotes for some plants but not for others. Finding a fungus that will 'marry' with your chosen host plant is a real shot in the dark. It's more fun looking in the dirt yourself and testing what you find, but I just don't think you have a year to finish your project, right?

What I would do in your place with limited time would be to purchase three commercial fungal probiotics for garden or crop plants and do a comparison with the control being no fungus added. The plant that you choose to test should be one that is easy to start from seed, grows quickly and has an upright habit so that you can use height as one of the growth measurements in comparing the efficacy of the fungal culture against sterile dirt.

You will need a planting mix that is sterile so that you are not introducing some unknown microbes into the mix. You'll have to search for this online. Make sure you get one that does NOT contain fertilizer. Feeding the plants might mask the effects of the fungi.

Water the plants with distilled water and keep the pots in a warm, sunny location. Take photos and measure the height and approximate leaf area every week. Note such things as when buds appear, when flowers open, and when seeds form.

I'm sure you will have more questions--I'll be here.

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Greetings!
It's a pity, taking many types of soil looking for different microorganisms sounded pretty fun!
Something good that I was recently informed, is that I've a month but to deliver a written work about what my project will be about, if they select it for the next phase they will give me a considerable amount of time to prepare my Project. For now I just have to concentrate on thinking about how I'll do the project and then do the experiment and the presentation (Although, should I start from now on so that the plants grow properly?) should I translate the bases into English so you can take a look ?)
This is a relief, for now we must concentrate on formulating the theoretical work.

I'm beginning to understand almost everything about how to do this.
I'll take the option to buy a crop of the plant in question with which I plan to do my experimentation, then plant two more of these. Then, one of the seeds I plant in a sterile planting mix, then I should inoculate the fungi that facilitate their growth, right? And find a way to increase the effectiveness of fungi by adjusting the PH level, adding lime, etc ...
The second plant, under what conditions should I plant it?

Achieving a good participation in the contest is very important for me, I am very grateful to you.

[SciB]

Hey--you're welcome, It's what I like to do.

Project, project....hmm!

Now you have more time--that's good. But still have to come up with a great idea. Yes, you could tweak the soil conditions but that could also affect the plant--pH, for example.

The growing conditions for soil fungi are not real well characterized. It is a complex ecosystem that we're just starting to get a handle on. It's kinda like the human gut microbiome that seems to be involved in everything from mood disorders to heart disease but we don't exactly know how.

I would get down and dirty with a microscope. I want to see the fungal mycelia engaging with the plant roots on a cellular level. This generates lots of great photos, especially if you use a dye to make the mycelium a different color from the plant cell. Just don't know how to work this into a project.

The first thing, and the hardest thing is to state the hypothesis. Everything depends on that. I would try to think it out as a practical goal--what can I do to make corn grow better, or beans or wheat. That's what commercial growers need. I'm sure they are paying attention to the new ideas coming out about soil fungi but they don't know what they should do. They understand fertilizers and herbicides, but fungi are something new.

OK. My first idea was to buy several types of soil fungi additives and do a comparison. That's worthwhile but not particularly exciting. One thing I don't know is how long it would take for the symbiont to engage the host. If you mixed the fungal spawn with soil and planted a bean seed, how long would it take before the fungal mycelium grew towards the plant's roots and then attached itself and established the mutual relationship? Days? Weeks? Months?

If it takes months you have a problem.

If you go to the websites of companies that make products that are supposed to provide beneficial soil fungi, or the conditions to promote the existing fungi, they will have information about using the product. This will give you some idea of the time involved. And you may read some other things that give you an idea--so it is worth doing this.

Sorry, I can't come up with the perfect plan just yet. You'll have to do some more reading and thinking about this. Come back later with your ideas and we can talk some more. I'm sure there's a great project here--we just haven't nailed it yet.

Good luck!

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Hi!
Well, I'll use beans in the experiment because they grow fast and give their first seed quickly. It sounds a bit complicated to raise the hypothesis, I will continue reading to see if I get ideas to form it.

See you later!

[SciB]

Sounds great!

Good luck with the reading and if you get stumped on anything give me a shout and I'll see what I can do.

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Hello!
I've already been investigating, and it seems to me that if I unearth the plant after it's taken root, and I place the additive (It's like a mycorrhiza "powder"), the symbiote won't be long in reaching the guest!
But this has made me doubt. if there are products that already have this function, Does it make my project unuseful? Would not it just be like "advertising" for these products?
I just got that doubt, sorry if it seems I'm being ungrateful with your help :/

[SciB]

No, no--perfectly logical and reasonable question.

Testing products is certainly helpful to the users, but I understand what you mean that it is not really a 'science' project. That' why I initially suggested grubbing in the dirt to unearth the fungal beasties where they live. But you're still left with the problem of WHAT will your hypothesis be?

When I write a grant proposal it is for 3-5 years, but you obviously have a lot less time--hence the suggestion of a commercial fungal additive.

You could pick one of the fungi products and a range of host plants and see which one benefited most from the fungus. You would have to carefully read the product statement, however, because you need a fungus that will start growing and colonizing the plants roots immediately, not 6 months or a year from now.

If you want to try a project like this, I would suggest strongly that you call the companies that make these products and talk to one of their scientists about whether their product would grow quickly enough for you to do a project in a reasonable length of time. You don't want to go to all the trouble of setting up these experiments only to find out that the fungus is asleep and won't wake up till next year!

I wish I had a clearer answer to tell you what to do but hopefully these suggestions can simmer in your brain and pop out an IDEA.

Keep in touch,

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

I'm understanding better.

My question will be: Can we avoid the damage we do to the environment with pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides?
(Possible) Hypothesis: We can use mycorrhiza "powder" to avoid the need for fertilizers, and use biological control to avoid having to use pesticides or herbicides.

It's more or less what I've for now, but, I think that because I don't have so much time to do the proyect, I think I won't be able to carry out the project: /.

I'm gonna look for some large trees to extract the different types of mycorrhiza. I can extract the mycorrhiza without damaging the plant, right?

See you!

[SciB]

Hey Daniel,

Yeah that's a good plan to work with soil fungi instead of chemical fertilizers--its Nature's way!

I'm a really visual person--photographer, like to draw, etc--and I wish you would get hold of a decent microscope, at least 400x and binocular if you can get it. Soil fungi are everywhere and 80-90% of plants have them around or in their roots. Try to get the fine feeder roots because I think that's where the fungi hang out. You should google this procedure or go to youtube and try to get some instructions about how to see the mycorrhizae on plant roots.

Once you get some roots with fungi in them, you can try staining them with certain dyes that show up the fungal hyphae where they enter the root cells. This makes for great, colorful photos, and you can use your phone camera to take pix through the eyepiece of the microscope--you don't need a fancy camera.

Do you live somewhere with a warm climate? The temperature here in Maine is 31 now (10 pm) and gardening outside is done for this year. As long as you are far enough south to avoid a frost you should be able to do some fungal field work and get some samples to work with. Trees do have fungal symbionts but I think they might be a little tricky to locate because they live on the tiny feeder roots--not the big, fat roots.

Good luck with this project. Make it work!

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Hi sybee!

Well, where I currently live there's usually a temperature of 29ºC.
I can collect samples of my grandmother's crops.

By the way, I think that the experimentation will be done like this:
- I'll take many seeds of beans,then I'll plant them in pairs to see how the mycorrhiza affects the soil and nearby crops. I'll classify each one according to the type of fungi that I've introduced in it and I'll take pictures every week as you said. I will also have two seeds with chemical fertilizer to compare.
What worries me is that none of the symbionts "marry" the guest
I will ask for a borrowed microscope from the school
Also:(Should I send you the pictures that I'll take?)

See you!

[SciB]

Oh, I was forgetting that you lived in one of the warmer spots on the planet--so no problem with old man winter there!

Granny's Garden! What a perfect spot for a project. Whenever you need help, you have an expert right there.

Your question of whether the fungi will decide to be friendly with the plants is the key to your success and I still think you should call the company and try to talk to tech support. They can give you the best info and probably tell you things about the fungi that would be very helpful. Most company people are willing to talk to students because they have young kids themselves and want to see you succeed in making a good science project.

I can help you with doing the staining for the mycorrhizae in the plant roots and taking pix w your phone. It is really neat to see the tiny fungal hyphae inside the plant cells and to think about all this chemistry and biology going on outside in the garden without being visible except through a microscope. I've always thought that the mushroom part of the fungus--the part that sticks up with the cap and makes the spores--was the coolest thing ever and I have a zillion photos of them. Then I learned about the part you don't see! The fungal mycelium can be huge!! Acres and acres and a thousand years old [google it!]. Some biologists call it the largest living organism in the world.

That's a little off-topic, but I can't help going on about fungi cuz they are so great!

You don't have to send me every pic, just upload some so I can see what the plants look like from time to time, and especially when you get some photos thru the scope.

Check in again soon

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Heya!
I tried to call some companies, but they never took my call. The companies that I call are some of the Spanish-speaking that I found. I'm not sure about calling any English-speaking company because when I try to speak in this language I'm paralyzed.

I was always attracted to zoology, due to the hours I spent watching pet programs as a child, but since I started researching when I opened this thread, thanks to you I've researched a lot about cell biology and I'm starting to really like this branch! This is also a bit offtopic but anyway

I've seen that there are videos about making homemade inoculants when I was looking for what you told me, is it worth trying that?

See you!

[SciB]

OK--so what's Plan B? There's always gotta be a plan B--maybe also C and D

Hey, I'm glad you are getting interested in biology. The more you find out about it the more you are gonna see how way cool it is to learn about living things. Someday soon we [maybe Elon Musk] are gonna find some space life on Mars or maybe the moons of Saturn and astrobiology is going to become a reality.

I don't expect this extra-Earthian life is gonna have legs and antennas and carry phasers, at least I hope not, but it will be totally new and totally fascinating, and you might be one of the Martian colonists who finds it.

Oops! off-topic again, darn

So, you can go ahead and use the fungal inoculants that you can buy commercially and maybe you can dig up some mycelia out in the woods to use for comparison. Do some more reading online about the use of inoculants. I'm sure there's lots of info, but some of it could be pretty technical, so ask away when you need help. I don't know everything, but i am working on it.

Enjoy!

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Regards!
At the moment I don't have anything new, just so you don't think I gave up hahaha .
I've been reading about inoculants, and the terms that I haven't understood I investigated them.
I couldn't get the microscope as you suggested, I don't know if that'll affect the plan.
I've noticed that on Youtube there are many videos about agriculture, that speak about the michorriza, fungi etc ... I'm investigating there now.

See you later!

[SciB]

Hi Dan. I was wondering what you were up to--living in dirt with fungus. It really is a crazy interesting subject the more you learn about it. Just to think all this is going on under our feet all the time and we didn't know it.

You NEED that microscope. Maybe you could do a Kickstarter video and get people to buy one for your school. There are some really nice used ones that are certified to work and decent new ones can be had for $500. Your school has to have microscopes!

There's always plan B--turn your smartphone into a microscope. Yes, you can do that. There are several ways:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqQI_3vCl7U

and if you don't feel like making it yourself, there's one available from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Nurugo-Micro-Mag ... B01K07NJUK

You need to be able to get up close and personal with your fungus, so try this and let me know how you make out.

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

In fact, learning about this has aroused my curiosity about fungi, I like the images of how they look under the microscope.

On the other hand, obtaining the microscope has been complicated. I tried to borrow one from the lab and they didn't give it to me :T (I can take the samples where I have fungi, but accessing the lab is complicated and would take a long time).
I tried to put together a microscope on my own, but It didn't even reach the magnification x100 ;_;
Due to the currency difference between Dollar and the currency of my country, that microscope from amazon is at a considerable price.
But it's not time to give up now, I'll see if any of the biology teachers have a microscope that can lend me.

See you!

[SciB]

Good work, Daniel!
You are persistent and can think of ways around a problem. Keep looking and keep talking to people.
A 100X scope can be usable provided the camera has good resolution--at least 12 MP. If you have a good, sharp image you can always enlarge it.

Let me know if you have tech questions.

You can always start some fungus now and photograph it later. I don't know how much you can see with a hand lens or with the phone camera close-up lens, but at least you could be getting some information about the soil fungi. And of course--keep doing the reading, watch youtube videos and record everything in an e-notebook--with illustrations. The more you can do now, the less you have to do later.

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Hey!

I was wondering, is a good idea try that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4crxK1oPYTA

How old does have to be my "Michorrizae builder?

[SciB]

Hey Dan--you're still on track. That video looks like a good way to get the fungus to the roots quickly. If you can buy a bunch of plants already potted up and grown that would save time. I don't know how long it takes the fungus to colonize the roots, but if you keep the soil temperature at least 24C (75F) it should attach pretty quickly and start feeding the plant.

Starting the plants yourself would be better because then you can choose the exact type of soil. Commercial soil sometimes has added fertilizer which could hide the effect of the fungus.

Nothing is simple in science--but that's part of what makes it fun. You have to take time to think out all the angles and possibilities. For example, you want to see the effect of one fungus on one plant so you have to make sure this is what you have in your experiment. When you buy the mycorrhizal product make sure it tells you exactly what it contains, otherwise call the company and tell them you are doing a science project and need to know everything that's in their product.

Keep me posted on what you are doing so I can make suggestions if necessary. I'm curious about what is going to happen and I want you to succeed in making a winning project so keep me posted, ok.

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Hey!
By the way, it turns out that the first part of the contest that only consists in sending a summary of the project is the one that is in camaino. To present the project I have until the end of April.

The truth is I'm stuck in this, what I want to do is plant different types of plants, two of each type, one with fertilizer and one without fertilizer.

I could not get a probiotic, so maybe I will usea compost :I

[SciB]

Daniel--you need fungi! Compost is old stuff. The mycorrhizae is the future, along with plant gene engineering. So, stick with your original plan. We can make it work.

You have more time now so maybe you could isolate some soil fungus yourself. Do you live in an area where there are woods and fields? Weeds have fungi, trees have fungi, shrubs have fungi. You just need to get some and test it. Get as powerful a hand lens as you can, like 10X or 20X, or get a close-up lens for your phone camera. You need to be able to see the mycorrhizae associated with plant roots.

I would just go out into a field, dig up a plant carefully so as not to disturb the roots, bring it back to the lab (your kitchen or whatever) and then examine the roots to see if there's anything that looks like it could be fungal hyphae around them. You won't know until you try. Maybe you will get lucky and find a plant that has a big healthy fungal symbiote. Just keep digging and looking.

Let me know what you find.

You could also try and get a commercial fungal product by calling the company and asking them for a sample for your science project. There are some kind people who will help a student, because they remember how it was when they were in your place.

Good luck!

Sybee

[deleted-624639]

Greetings!

Okay, now that I sent a message to several companies about the samples of inoculants, I got a magnifying glass x10 and I'm trying to get a webcam, which, I saw, you can make a pretty good microscope with that.

What exactly is the process to "extract" the fungi?

[deleted-624639]

By the way, I have never done any online purchase before, so I don't if this is a trap https://www.ebay.com/itm/3E1B-Microscop ... SwDAdb48Hj what do you think?