Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My teacher suggested I do my science fair project on the effect of light frequency and intensity of the flora of winogradsky columns. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure what I am doing. I've put together the columns, but am not sure where to go next and I haven't found much information past actually making the columns.

I know I need some sort of light source, but am not sure if I just use a regular light bulb?
Do I expose all columns to light but just for different amounts of time?
My teacher said I needed to purchase ph testing strips. I am not sure how/when to use them.

I guess I just need a better understanding of the project. My thought is that the ones that get the most light will have more plant life than the ones that don't. I just need some guidance on how to run this project since I haven't gotten anything further from my teacher.

Any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I turned in 4 other project ideas that were denied even thought they met the criteria (i.e. grade level, difficulty, etc.)

Hi, this project was done at the California Science Fair, here is a summary. www.usc.edu/CSSF//Current/Projects/S0820.pdf

Michael

Hi,

Here are a few other resources on winogradsky column experiments:

http://www.kabt.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... b-site.pdf

http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/to ... adsky.html

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/e ... adsky.html

http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/astrobio ... ky_5_8.pdf

http://www.envsci.rutgers.edu/~phelps/l ... esson6.pdf

If you read through these sites you will find a LOT of information on what you can do with these columns and a number of options of how do interesting projects with them. To find out even more try doing a Google search on winogradsky columns - there is a really rich set of information that is very easy to find.

This looks like a really good project idea!! Have fun with it.

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson