Plants provide us with so much — oxygen to breath, food to eat, materials to make clothing and paper, and beautiful flowers and leaves to admire! How can plants be so diverse and survive in so many kinds of climates? How do they know how to grow towards the sun? Why do some plants not have seeds? Explore the amazing and beautiful world of plants with an experiment from our collection of plant biology projects.
Soil may look like a bunch of dirt, but good quality soil is actually a complex mixture of dirt, nutrients, microorganisms, insects and worms. What type of benefit do these microorganisms offer a growing plant? You can test this by baking soil in the oven to sterilize and kill the microorganisms. Do plants grown in sterile soil do better than plants in unsterilized soil? What about adding worms to one plant, but not to the other. Will the plant with worms grow better? Some insects are bad…
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PlantBio_p031
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Time Required
Very Long (1+ months)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Readily available
Cost
Very Low (under $20)
Safety
Adult supervision is required when using the oven. Use caution when handling and disposing of mold. Treat molds according to the same safety rules as outlined for bacteria in the .
Do you know what plants need to grow? Sure, they need soil, water, and sunshine.
Everyone knows that. But here's a secret: they also need nitrogen. Plants use nitrogen to make DNA in their cells and
the proteins that lead to healthy stems and leaves. The problem is, although the Earth's
atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen, the form of nitrogen found in the atmosphere cannot be used by plants.
So how do plants get their nitrogen? Either through nitrogen deposits in the soil, or through…
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PlantBio_p010
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Time Required
Very Long (1+ months)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Specialty items (can easily be purchased online through Carolina Biological Supply Company)
Cost
Average ($50 - $100)
Safety
Requires adult supervision during use of nitrogen fertilizer
Chlorophyll is a natural pigment found in green plants. It is the primary pigment that absorbs light energy from the sun for photosynthesis. This energy is then used by the plant to synthesize glucose from carbon dioxide and water. Chlorophyll in the leaves of plants can be extracted and separated using chromatography. A good source of chlorophyll for an extraction is a dark green leafy vegetable like spinach. Rub a fresh spinach leaf on the bottom of a strip of filter paper. You can get a…
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PlantBio_p020
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Time Required
Average (6-10 days)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
The page on lists the best papers and solvents for chromatography. The paper needs to be specially ordered and is available
from our partner .
Cost
Low ($20 - $50)
Safety
The solvents, like acetone or alcohol, for paper chromatography should be used in well-ventilated areas. Adult supervision is recommended.
Everybody knows that worms are good for the soil, but not everybody knows why. Here's a project that investigates just one of the ways earthworms improve the earth. Would earthworm castings (or earthworm manure) help your plants prosper and flourish? If so, how much should you use?
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Germination is the process by which a seed emerges from the seed coat. Many different variables can effect the process of germination. Try to sprout seeds from different species of plant to see if different species vary in germination time. Are weeds faster germinators than vegetables? Try measuring seeds and then germinating them to see if big seeds sprout at a different rate than small seeds. Try sprouting seeds in different environments to test the effect of different environmental…
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PlantBio_p028
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Time Required
Very Long (1+ months)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Readily available
Cost
Very Low (under $20)
Safety
Use caution when using a blade to cut open seeds. Adult supervision is recommended.
Every day farmers around the world apply commercial fertilizer to their fruits and vegetables to improve plant health and yield. But applying commercial fertilizer is expensive and not economically possible for some farmers in developing countries. What if they could find a way to fertilize plants cheaply? It turns out that human urine is rich in the nutrients that plants need to grow. Could urine serve as a fertilizer substitute? Find out for yourself in this plant growth science project.
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PlantBio_p046
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Time Required
Very Long (1+ months)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
To do this project, you will need dirt without any added fertilizer. See the Materials and Equipment list for details.
Cost
Low ($20 - $50)
Safety
Use caution when handling human urine. Wear gloves when working with human urine. Adult supervision is recommended.
Hydrogen peroxide (often used as a disinfectant) has also been approved for use in pesticides. This science fair project investigates whether hydrogen peroxide has any effects on seed germination or on roots of plant cuttings.
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PlantBio_p036
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Time Required
Long (2-4 weeks)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Readily available
Cost
Average ($50 - $100)
Safety
Use caution when using the knife. Always use oven mitts when you remove items from an oven. Adult supervision is recommended.
Plants move—not very quickly compared to animals, but they do move. Their roots grow downward in response to gravity, and their stems grow upward toward the Sun. In this plant biology science fair project, you will investigate how young plants respond through movement to light.
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Are all reds the same? Find out in this science fair project! Investigate if the pigments in one type of red flower are different from those in another type of red flower. Flowers contain an assortment of amazing chemicals that produce color. In this plant biology science fair project, you will analyze the colored pigments in different plants' red flower petals using paper chromatography, and compare the pigments in the different flowers.
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PlantBio_p035
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Time Required
Short (2-5 days)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Filter paper can be purchased from from our partner .
Cost
Low ($20 - $50)
Safety
You will be working with isopropyl alcohol. Adult supervision is recommended
Flower development is an important part of plant growth. When a plant has reached maturity, it needs to develop flowers in order to reproduce. The male and female parts of the flower have specialized structures for reproduction that develop as the plant matures. How do flowers develop over time? Which structures develop first? You can answer these questions by dissecting the flowers of a gladiola. Gladiola flowers grow and develop along the stem, with the most mature flowers opening at the…
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PlantBio_p027
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Time Required
Average (6-10 days)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Gladiola plants are available for purchase in many plant nurseries at select times of the year. Check with your local nursery.
Cost
Low ($20 - $50)
Safety
Use caution when using a blade for flower dissection. Adult supervision is recommended.
