Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,

My daughter is doing a science fair experiment comparing the different effects of artificial sweeteners on plant growth.

Two questions as we get started:

What is the best type of plant to use for this?

Thoughts on amount of sweetener in water solution to provide good results?

Thanks!
Kelly's mom

Hi Kelly's mom,

This is a great project idea! I found some Science Buddies projects dealing with plant growth, which may have some helpful information:

General information for how to measure plant growth: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... owth.shtml
How do plants grow in different environments? https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p046.shtml
Effects of irradiation on seed germination: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p039.shtml

One popular plant for science projects is the radish, which is relatively easy to grow at home.

I do not have a suggestion for a particular concentration of sweetener, but I would suggest making it relatively concentrated to observe a result.

I hope this helps. Please post again (in this same thread) if you have more questions.

Heather

Hi Kelly's mom,

I did a quick google search on the effects of artificial sweeteners on plant growth and came across this webpage. Hopefully the comments here will give you some ideas on how to go about doing this project with your daughter!

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/20 ... .Bt.r.html

Please feel free to post more questions if you need further help!

Best,
Connie

It. A winter and hard to come across seeds at all much less those that will grow indoors. We are thinking of using chia seeds since they grow pretty fast I believe.

Thoughts?

Hi Kelly's mom,

Chia seed sound like a great idea. Let us know how it goes!

Heather