Environmental Stress & Plant Growth (A.S. 91601 (Bio 3.1 Int) Practical )

Its time for you to design your own practical experiment .... within a few limits.

We'll be using plants - Radishes (Raphanus sativus) Why = because it will grow fast enough for you to get the results you need in the time you have.

Watch .... (Learn)

So what do you remember about designing an experiment? Lets go back a few years to when you first were introduced to the "Scientific Method". 

Watch and remember ... (Learn)

So here is the assessment .... But DON'T start it yet. Just read through what you are expected to do. (Learn)

You will have (should have) noticed that you are asked to keep a logbook of your progress/thinking. This can be done as a blog too.

But why ..... (Learn)

So you think you are ready to get under way? Remember it has to be a fair test .... (Learn)

What are these things called variables ..... and what is a control?  (Learn)

So how much data should you collect? (Learn)

Typically you should have a valid range of at least 5 (including your control) and repeat the experiment at least 3 times. How you do all this is up to you.

So the title says "Environmental Stressors and Plant Growth". So what kind of things are environmental stressors .... here are a few ideas to get you started ...... (Learn)

Here are a couple of clips to get you started - but you only want to focus on 1 stressor.

So if we limit it to only 1 stressor - here are some classics .... (Learn)

First one is an advert ..... focus on the stressor effects, not the product being sold

You want salt with that?

Ask any farmer about soil pH .....

Who needs coffee to get their day started? First is straight forward, 2nd is the full on Science behind it all.

How about something quite different .... but we've probably all unfortunately felt the effects at some time in our lives .....

So now its your turn to come up with an environmental stressor and design an experiment to test out your Hypothesis ..... (Create. Share)

Okay, by now you should have grown some radishes, probably killed some too.

This information is called your results - what are you going to do now?

You need to turn all this raw data into meaningful results that you can then explain in your discussion and conclusion. (Create, Share)

How to do that? (Learn)

So all that raw data has been turned into tables and graphs that hopefully give a clearer picture of what has happened. 

You will also probably need to do some "Data Analysis" = statistics to help explain the significance of what the numbers are saying.

Here are a some statistical things that you could consider doing to give extra meaning to your data. (Learn, Create, Share)

This one is more complex .... but does give significance to your data - If you've never used this kind of data analysis before its a good idea to get some help. Probably from your nearest Statistics teacher.

Here is something to check through to make sure you have done all that you need to. (Learn)