• What was the mission or aim of your project? 

Our aim for this project was to find a way to grow Food on Mars. After researching we realized that Martian soil is infertile and lacks nitrogen phosphorus and potassium which is needed for a plant to grow. So, we decided to add different amount of fertilizer which has all the elements needed to see if our plants (Tomatoes, Zucchinis) will grow better with no fertilizer or with fertilizer and to see if increasing the amount of fertilizer improves the quality of th plants .

• Why was this your mission?

If we are planning to grow crops on Mars, it would be inconvenient to bring soil from earth to mars. That is why we are trying to make Martian soil more fertile, by adding a chemical fertilizer that has some nutrients that Martian soil is missing (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium).

• What action/experiment did you take?

We used 3 different amounts of fertilizer (0tsp, 0.5 tsp and 1 tsp) in all three trials

• How did you use what you learned in grade 9 science in the design?

We had 3 trials, an independent variable ( the fertilizer), a control variable (Amount of sunlight, water, soil amount, temperature, type and amount of seeds, one trial with no fertilizer), and a dependent variable (length of plants, qualitative data)

Our experiment was unsuccessful, since our hypothesis that increasing the fertilizer improves the plant growth. However, we think the project itself was successful since we managed to create plant growth in Martian soil.  Something that contributed to our success was the amount of resources that we can access including, synthetic Martian soil, a grow light, and the materials used to make our greenhouse. Something that caused a lack of success was definitely that Martian soil has a high content of iron which is also used for killing weeds and plants. Along with that, we added more iron from the fertilizer, which could explain why the pots with the most fertilizer have the weakest plant growth. Something that we would do differently if we could is definitely try adding a fertilizer which has the smaller iron content. Our goal is to try and sustainably grow food on Mars by using the  soil we have on mars instead of bringing it from earth.

Our pitch to a future group is to try using an iron chelator like humic acid to attempt to remove the iron from the soil for better plant growth. If I could pick up where I left off, this is definitely something I would consider, as well as using a more gentle fertilizer. 

Ira

 I learned a lot from this project including : how to use microbits, how fertilizer works, and how Martian soil is infertile.  Fertillizer contains the nutrients phosphorus, pottasium, and nitrogen which are all lacking in martian soil, causing it to be harder for plants to survive in it.  We had to think about all the different factors for our project, like how are we going to give them oxygen? How will they get light?  How will we keep them warm enough to grow?  We researched about all of these topics and found solutions to our problems. Overall I think the main lesson I learned was to research more about what martian soil does have, than what it doesn't. If I had, then the plants would have had a much better chance at growing , and we could have had more successful results.

Keira

Our project helped me learn a lot about mars, what the conditions are like and how to grow plants in such harsh conditions. Mars has extremly cold tempuratures, and the soil in mars is lacking the nutrients plants need to survive, Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus. We learned that fertilizer has all of those things and if we used it, it might help grow the plants, but we were wrong. the fertilizer did not help grow the plants, it actually stopped them from growing and it wouldve been better without the fertilizer. We also learned that greenhouses are very good for plants, it helps keep the heat compacted to help grown the plants and protect them from mars cold tempurature. We searched up some factors that could help plants grow and one of them was a grow light, so we made a greenhouse out of popcicle sticks and plastic wrap then put a grow light over our plants. In the end, the plants did die, and we think that is because we may have overwattered them. We thought since the soil was so dry, they might need more water, but we were wrong. The plants did live for a good amount of time, and i believe we could have done better if we had had more time. 

Simrah

What I learnt from this project is that plants can actually grow on Mars. Throughout this project I doubted that the plants will actually grow but after after finishing our experiment I realized that we may actually be able to create a habitat on Mars. I learnt about how to connect Mars resources with Earths resources such as adding fertilizer than includes nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium so Martian soil can get fertile. I learnt how to balance the harsh environment of Martian soil and normal seeds, so as a team we had to research how much water, sunlight and food a plant needs to be able to even sprout on Mars. I really enjoyed this project because to create a habitat on Mars food,water and oxygen is a necessity so experimenting with a Martian environment is very interesting and fun. We also added some crafts into our project and created a DIY greenhouse made of popsicle sticks, hot glue and seran wrap to give the plants shelter and used in class grow lights to help the plants.