Life on Land, Middle School, Plant Biology Science Projects (24 results)

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
These projects explore topics key to Life on Land: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_HK_9rFBkw

Use Floating Leaf Disks to Study Photosynthesis

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever seen a (non-carnivorous) plant eat? Probably not! Plants do not get the energy they need from food, but from the sunlight! In a process called photosynthesis, plants convert light energy, water, and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar. They can then use the sugar as an energy source to fuel their growth. Scientists have found an easy way to measure the rate of photosynthesis in plants. The procedure is called the floating leaf disk assay. In this plant biology project, you can… Read more

Do Different Tree Species Grow at the Same Rate?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Trees grow more during the early spring than they do the rest of the year. Because of this period of dormancy, or lack of growth, each year of growth is marked by a line called a tree ring. You can count the number of rings in the cross section of a tree trunk to show how old the tree is. You can also count the number of rings in a stem to see the age of a stem or branch. One way to measure the rate of growth of a tree is to count the number of rings per inch. Trees with high numbers of… Read more

How Does the Stem Grow?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Plant stems grow through a process of elongation due to cell divisions within the stem. Does the entire length of the stem elongate evenly? Or do certain regions along the plant stem grow more or less than others? Regions that are involved in active growth are called vegetative. You can conduct an experiment to show which regions of a bean seedling are involved in vegetative growth. Use a marker to mark one inch sections along the main stem of a young bean seedling. Number the regions 1-6… Read more

Plants on the Move! Experiments with Phototropism

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

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. Read more

Growing Plants on Mars

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

To be able to live on Mars, humans need breathable air, clean water, and nutritious food. Spacesuits can provide oxygen to breathe, ice on Mars can be a source of water, but how could we get nutritious food? Today's astronauts bring food with them. But a manned trip to Mars would require food that was either successfully grown in space or on Mars, as taking the extra weight of food for such a long time—it takes 6–9 months one way—is just too costly. In this project, you will… Read more

How Do Plants Change the Buildup of Greenhouse Gases?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Global warming is how scientists describe the gradual warming of our global climate. Scientists think that the trend towards global warming can be attributed to the build up of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere from industrialization. Another problem is deforestation, as we remove plants and trees from the environment to meet a high demand for lumber or by clear cutting fields for farming and urbanization. By removing trees from the earth's environment, are we changing how greenhouse… Read more

How Do Flowers Develop?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

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… Read more

What Color Are the Leaves Really Turning?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Everyone loves the beautiful colors of fall, but where do they come from and how does the change in colors happen? In this project, you will uncover the hidden colors of fall by separating plant pigments with paper chromatography. What colors will you see? Read more

Fungi Spores

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Mushrooms are not plants, but are fungi. Fungi include mushrooms, molds, and lichen. They do not produce seeds to reproduce like some plants. Fungi produce spores, like more primitive plants do. The spores of a mushroom are contained in the tiny folds around the stem underneath the mushroom cap. Different species of mushrooms have different types of spores, with different colors and different patterns of folds. You can make mushroom prints by removing the stem from a mushroom and placing the… Read more

Can Water Plants Be Used to Determine Water Quality?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Some plants grow only in water-logged environments. These plants are usually native to wetlands and are important for the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems. Wetland ecosystems are very fragile and susceptible to the toxic dumping of sewage and fertilizer run-off from neighboring farm land. One very common aquatic plant called duckweed inhabits many wetland marshes. Duckweed grows by asexual reproduction and floats at the surface of the water with tiny roots extending into the water below.… Read more

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