Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My daughter wrote a problem and hypothesis in her science log. She wrote for her problem: As I was walking in Forest one afternoon with my family I noticed that vines were growing up towards the sun. I wondered what would happen if I built two identical closed mazes, one with mirrors to reflect the light and another one without the mirrors. I know that when I am at the beach the sun reflects off the water and the vegetation on the dunes seems to grow quickly. I wonder is it because of the reflection fo the light or not? Would the mirrors reflecting the light guide the plant quicker to the light source? She then wrote a hypothesis after reading the recommendations on how to write one on your web page. It is: If a plant receives reflected light from mirrors in a maze, then it will grow quicker towards the light source than a plant that doesn't have reflected light in a maze. She thought she would type the question , Would a plant receives reflected light grow quicker towards a light source? and post this a her problem on her Science Fair board. She would then post the hypothesis that she had written on her display too. Does this sound correct? Or should she change it in some way?
Thank you!

I'm happy to see you taking an interest in your daughter's science project. Encouragement and support of parents is very helpful. I'm also so glad to hear that your family takes nature walks -- something of a rarity these days! But I would prefer to hear your daughter's question from her directly. Why don't you let her know about the availability of Science Buddies and let her take it from there? I think your daughter is lucky to have such a nice family.

Hi,

Your daughter has made an interesting observation and her idea for a science project is unique and very excellent. The best projects are ones that the student has a personal interest in doing. John has made some encouraging comments and I would like to add some additional suggestions.

Here is information from the Science Buddies website on writing a hypothesis. Your daughter has intuitively written a hypothesis in the recommended “if I do this, then this will happen,” format. So her hypothesis as stated is excellent: “If a plant receives reflected light from mirrors in a maze, then it will grow quicker towards the light source than a plant that doesn’t have reflected light in a maze.” This is a great start and I would not recommend changing it at all.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... esis.shtml

Here is a project idea from the Science Buddies website on phototropism. Your daughter’s project is unique, so she will be designing her own experiment, but this project includes information and bibliography on the topic. It’s important to understand the scientific principles involved in a project, so your daughter will need to become an expert in phototropism. I would recommend doing additional Google searches on growing plants with reflected light.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p041.shtml

Here’s a project idea that includes background information on why plants need light. This is also useful background information for this project.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p015.shtml

Since this is a science fair project, your daughter will need to measure her results. Here is information on measuring plant growth:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... owth.shtml

And, finally, here’s information that will help in designing a carefully controlled experiment. For this project, you daughter will need to carefully consider what to use as a control, and how many plants in each control and experimental group she will need to use.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... dure.shtml

Good luck. Let us know if you have more questions

Donna Hardy

Thank you so much for your input. My daughter is awaiting her approval for her science buddy membership so she can correspond. We sent the fax with my signature today. She was so excited so I decided to post her concerns. She has already done some of the research you suggested Donna. I even took her to a local Greenhouse where she interviewed a "garden" expert on different plants she could use in her experiment.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. That’s great that your daughter will be able to correspond with us. Be sure to have her post in the same topic, so that the experts who are following the project will be notified when there is a new question posted.
Interviewing the garden expert to get ideas for a suitable plant to use was a great idea. Subject matter experts can provide very helpful details that can help with understanding and executing the experiment. What plant/s is your daughter considering using?

Donna Hardy

It was recommended to her to use either Creeping Charlie or English Ivy. She is not sure if she needs to use both or just one. She made two mazes that are exactly the same except she put mirrors in the one maze. We did purchase both plants. In reading the experimental procedure, she is not sure if she needs more than one plant or not. What do you think?

Hi,

English Ivy and Creeping Charlie are good choices; they are both easy to grow. It would be best to have two plants that are the same variety; one for the control without the maze and one with the maze. And it would be better yet to have two plants in each group.

How much time does your daughter have before the project is due?

Donna Hardy

Thank you for your immediate feedback. She only has 4 weeks total for the project. We are a little nervous about the short amount of time she has. She already has set up the mazes with both plants for the maze with the mirrors and without the mirrors. She has been measuring the length of the growth and the number of new leaves for both plants. We are just hoping that we are guiding her in the right direction with her research and experiment. We are thrilled to have discovered this web page.

Hi,

I think 4 weeks will be long enough to see a difference in results. Length and number of leaves are both quantitative results, so there will be results to analyze. In the meantime, your daughter can write up all of the section of the display board except the results and conclusion while waiting for the plants to grow. The results and conclusion can be completed a few days before the project is due. Here is the information for the display board:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... oard.shtml

Good luck!


Donna Hardy

Hi, Donna!
My daughter has been working diligently trying to organize everything for her board. She is only in sixth grade and the display boards seem so complex on your web page. She would like to know where, if she should, display her variables? Also, in her school, they refer to the purpose as the problem. If you see my first posting, she is not sure if she should only post the question or what she had written in her science log. Thanks for your help!!

Hi
Thanks for all your help my project is moving nice and smooth. Thank you for communicating through my mother.

Hi,

It’s great to hear back from both of you! The display board on this website is a little complex, but it includes the basic sections. You should organize the project board into the sections specified by the teacher. The names of the sections can vary slightly but usually include:

Title
Question or problem or purpose
Hypothesis (the statement in the first paragraph is good)
Background information or research (include your observation in the forest and scientific information).
Materials and Procedure (a list of items used, where you purchased them, and a protocol that is detailed enough so someone else could reproduce your experiment).
Results in graph form and description in a paragraph
Conclusion or discussion-did you prove your hypothesis? What would you do different next time?
Bibliography or works cited-a list of your sources of information.
Acknowledgements-say thank-you to your mother.

With this project, you will probably only have one or two sentences in some of the sections so the presentation will be shorter than the examples given in the website. Sometimes teachers have requirements for specific information, so be sure to check the written assignment.

The variables in this project are the mirrors, which reflect the light. So the independent variable is the mirror and the dependent variable is the number of leaves and length of the stems that will be measured. You will include a description of the variables in the procedure section, include the data (mirror vs. control) preferably in graph form in the results section, and write a conclusion about the effect of the variables in the conclusion/discussion section.

Does this help? Or do you need more explanation?

Donna Hardy

I am planing on posting this on my display board for my problem.
Would a plant that receives reflected light grow quicker towards a light source?
How does this sound to you?

Hi,

This sounds pretty good for your problem. You could also simply write, “Will reflected light help a plant grow better?” Or maybe, “Will a plant that receives reflected light grow quicker?” Anyone who reads your project would be able to understand the problem with any of these questions.

Donna Hardy

I am having trouble getting started on how to write up my procedure. I am stuck on how detailed I should be about how the mazes are built. Or don't I include this? I read the example one from Science Buddies but find that is a different kind of experiment. Could you help me get started or refer me to somewhere else that I could learn more?

Hi,

Your procedure should be detailed enough so that anyone reading your project will be able to do exactly what you did and obtain the same results. So, for the materials, you would include a list of everything that you used. If you have used something unusual, you can include the brand name and store where you bought the item. You would describe what material you used to construct the maze and the size of the maze. It will probably be easiest to simply take a picture of the maze to show what it looks like and include a one or two sentence description of the construction technique. Anything you can do to make your project more visual with pictures and diagrams will help the science fair judges understand what you did.

Does this help?

Donna Hardy

Great! I have some great pictures when I was making the maze and the completed maze before the actual experiment started. So would just give a 1-2 sentence step for making the maze with a picture(s) next to it? I also have my plans for it written in my science logbook. Should I have my log book with my Science Fair Display too?

Hi,

A step-by-step photograph sequence of constructing the maze would be absolutely perfect. You should display your logbook with your project for the judging, as it will complement the display board and probably has more details in it.

Donna

Help!!
I am still stuck on the maze part of the procedure how to describe the construction of it in two sentences. This would be step one and two of the procedure correct? Do I start out by saying ...1. Take 14" X 10" box lid, cut 3" X 2.5" hole in the center of the 10" side, and cut the same hole on the opposite side in the left corner. 2. Use the sides of another 14" X 10" box to make two 6" dividers and one 3.5"divider. 3. Glue the dividers in the box lids evenly spaced out with a 6" divider towards the center cut hole, a 6" divider on the opposite side of the lid in the center, and the 3.5 " inch towards the light source. 4. To create the Independent Variable with the mirrors, glue the four mirrors in the box so that the light reflects off each one towards where the plant will be placed. 5. Take two 16 " X 10. 75" box lid, cut openings on the 10.75" to match the openings for the plant source and the light source.

This seems to be so detailed and I didn't even tell about my actual experiment yet.

Could you please help?

Thanks

Hi,

You have a good question. I can see the problem. Your description is excellent; very detailed and precise, but not very helpful for the reader to understand what you did. I would include this description in your research paper, and accompany the text with photographs. For your science board, I think it would be better just to show the pictures and state that” the maze was constructed of cardboard and glue as shown in Figure 1” or something similar . You will run out of room on your board, so you want to save room for your experiment.

Does this help?

Donna Hardy

Thank you Donna! I am feeling much better about my procedure. I am moving on to getting ready to figure out what is the best way to figure out my data for my independent variables ( length of the plant and number of leaves). I have read through the science buddies suggestions but seem more confused. Do you have any suggestions on where to begin?

Donna... I made a mistake I meant to say my Dependent Variables on the above message. It's late! How do I figure the % of leaf growth on both plants in both the control maze and the mirror maze?

Hi,

You are right; the leaf growth is your dependent variable. Your quantitative result that you measured is length of plant and number of leaves, so you can’t calculate percent of leaf growth with these measurements. You could make two bar graphs; one for plant length and one for number of leaves. Make one bar in each graph for the control and one for maze results. That way you can compare results side by side. If this doesn’t make sense, then please post your results and I’ll try to make additional suggestions.

Donna Hardy

Donna...

These are my results for the Creeping Charlie and the English Ivy in the mirror maze and the control maze. I still have one more day to get data so it's not complete.

Mirror Maze
Length of Plant Day1 Day2 Day3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10

Ivy 10cm 12cm 13.5 16cm 19cm 21cm 23cm 25cm ?


CC 5cm 7cm 7.5 8 8 3/8 8 5/8 9 1/8 9 1/2 ?

This is the data for the Mirror Maze that I measured every 3 days on 10 different observations.
Should I do line graph or bar graphs?
If you could respond back as soon back as soon as possible since i am working on it tonight it would be greatly appcreciated!

This is the data for the control maze with the Ivy and Creeping Charlie


Length of Plant (centimeters) Control Maze

Ivy : 10,11,12,12,12.5,13,14,15,?

CC: 4,5,5,6.5,6.5,6,7,7,?

Thanks,

Hi,

I’m sorry I was not able to respond yesterday. Your data is excellent! I think the best way to present data like this is in a line graph. I have attached a graph of your ivy results to show you what the data looks like. I graphed the difference in growth at time 0 in cm vs. time. You can see that the graph shows a big difference between the reflected light and the control. The line graph works best because you can “see” the progression of the experiment over time. You should do two graphs; one for each type of plant.

If you know or can learn to use Excel, you can do a graph on the computer. Otherwise, do the graph for your science board neatly by hand. You would of course add a title and label the x and y axis of the graph.

Donna Hardy

Thanks a million! I was working on a line graph.

How do you view the graph you did?

Hi,

I apologize, but I didn't notice the error message that the color graph was too large to attach. The black & white version is also too large to attach, so I will describe the graph in more details. For the ivy growth, the y axis is labeled from 0 to 5 cm; the x axis ranges from 0 to 8. The control line goes from 0 to 2 and the maze line goes vrom 0 to 4.5. It sounds like you understand how to do a line graph, so I'm sure your graph will be similar to mine.


Donna Hardy

Thank you for your tips! I can make a graph. Do you think I should do the same thing (2 different graphs- 1 for Ivy and 1 for Creeping Charlie) for the number of leaves data?