Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Dear expert,

Thank you for volunteering your time to help with the science fair.

I am doing a project over radiation Hormesis in plants to see if irradiating the seeds of bean plants will cause the plant to handle additional ultraviolet radiation better with less damage than the seeds that those that were not exposed to radiation.

I am trying to grow some bean plants inside the lab with two flourescent grow lamps and had some questions. I was wondering if I need to put the lights on a timer, if I have enought light, and if you have any other suggestions/tips.

Also, I am using a compound microscope for viewing the plants on a cellular level. However, I am having a very difficult time getting the sample of the plant tissue thin enough to observe it through the microscope. I was wondering if there were any techiniques that you recommend for thinning plant samples.



Thank you very much for your time,
Philip

Hi!

What is your exact project question? For a more detailed response, you will need to give your exact question. However, regarding all science fair projects you will have to keep your variables controlled. Ex: time for water, source of light, type of environment, depth of seed, type of nutrients, etc. What is your independent variable? PLEASE CLARIFY!!!

I hope this helps in some way!

Yes, it does help, thank you for your reply.

The problem for my experiment is:
Will an increase in ionizing radiation have an affect on how the plant responds to ultraviolet light?


The variables are: amount of light, UV light, water, ambient radiation, container, plant, seed, and time of year. The plants will be grown in a room at our hangar where the temperature will be controlled and the only source of light is the growth lamp.


The independant variable is the amount of gamma radiation. There are four dose groups- 100 rads, 1,000 rads, 5,000 rads, and 10,000 rads. I will also irradiate another set of seeds using some small sources that I have.


Thank you for your reply, if you would like any more information please let me know. Thanks,

Philip

Ok...that is much clearer! Here are some sites that might be useful:

Radiation Sites (these are a bit confusing...i hope they are useful)
1. http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/Current/Projects/S1409.pdf
2. http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q1280.html

Leaf Slides:
1. http://www.hometrainingtools.com/articl ... CheekCells - look under leaf cells

I will continuing searching for more sites. However, I hope these sites will help you with your project!

Thank you for those links, they helped a lot. And do you have any suggestions of what I need to do to get to the Intel ISEF? Thanks

Phililp

I hope you are talking about the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair because that is all I could find. This site will show you exactly what you need to do to qualify:

1.http://www.sciserv.org/isef/

Good luck!

Thanks for all of your help.

I did a test run in July growing bean plants in a green house. However, I had a very difficult time finding a consistant way to measure the plant height, especially whent the stems started curling up and growing around in complex shapes. If you have any techniques or methods to help measure these weird ones I would me much appreciative. Thanks


Philip

Hi philgismo2008,

Last year I did a project involving the heights of plants. Most of my plants started to curl as well.

I used a caliper to measure my plant heights. When the stems started to curl, I used a string to get the length, and then measured the string.

This is not a very accurate way of measuring. I tried googling this. Here is what I've got:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... owth.shtml

I really hope this helps,
Sareena

Thanks for your help, that way looks a lot easier.

Hi Philip,

My name is Linh and I'm an Expert with Science Buddies. I was also a two-time competitor at ISEF and thought I would offer a little advice.

I noticed your question about getting to ISEF. I initiated a similar discussion with Sareena. You may want to browse over the topics under the heading "Tumeric powder for cancer". I'm also copying my first response here.

First of all, don't worry about making your project too ambitious or flashy. From my experience, the judges were most interested in your thought processes. The best thing to do is find well-defined testable hypothesis. You should try to design experiments that will produce informative results either way. I remember talking to judges at science fair, and I certainly did NOT place because I had the flashiest project. Rather, I received praise for good experimental design. I also had followups. In other words, I would test one hypothesis, and then based on my results, I would set up another set of experiments to test or confirm my results. It is this sort of thought process that excites judges the most.

Second, I would encourage you to contact a local university as soon as possible. You'd be surprised how many labs are eager and happy to mentor students that are excited to do research. I started working in a local university lab literally when I was a sophomore in high school. I was incredibly lucky because I contacted a few professors directly, and one replied back to me. However, this was before the internet explosion.

These days, I would contact a local university. In particular, look for any sort of high school research program. They will have a program officer that will know professors that are amenable to mentoring high school students.

If you need more specific advice, I'd be happy to help. Feel free to respond and let me know if you need any specific help. Also, if you like, let me know some near by universities, and I may be able to point you in some good directions.

Best of luck!

Linh Pham