Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hey Everyone,
My sister is doing a project on watering plants with different types of water!!! She needs to know why each water affected the seeds differently!!!
By the way. Our science fair is on Friday Feb. 2nd!!! And she is in second grade!!!

Thanks,
NAC

Nathaniel Catasca wrote:Hey Everyone,
My sister is doing a project on watering plants with different types of water!!! She needs to know why each water affected the seeds differently!!!
By the way. Our science fair is on Friday Feb. 2nd!!! And she is in second grade!!!

Thanks,
NAC

What do you mean different types of water? With different fertilizers, different temperatures?

Louise

No!
She has the same temperature, the same fertilizer. What she did was, she had carbonated, colored, tap, and soapy, and salt water! So, she needs to know what to write down on her Conclusion!

Thanks,
NAC

Nathaniel Catasca wrote:No!
She has the same temperature, the same fertilizer. What she did was, she had carbonated, colored, tap, and soapy, and salt water! So, she needs to know what to write down on her Conclusion!

Thanks,
NAC

she shouldn't say she tested different waters, that is very confusing. Water is water!
Okay, so she tested water with different chemicals added-
carbonated = water + carbon dioxide
colored= water + food coloring (??)
soapy = water + soap
salt water= water + salt

Obviously, I have no idea what her conclusion should say because I don't know how her experiment went.

I think it all depends on how much of each stuff is in the water. My guess would be that the soap hurt the plants, since it is chemicals not found in nature. Also, salt is not found in high concentrations in most places in nature, so it could also hurt the plant. The colored water probably does not have enough chemical to be different from water- if you use food coloring you probably only add one or two drops, right? So same as plain water. Carbonation- I think all the gas would escape before the plant would drink the water, so it would be like plain water too.

This is what I would hypothesize about plant growth. But your sister did the experiment! What did she see? Why does she think she got the results she did? What I think is not important- the data is what is important!

Louise