Growing Plants Gizmo Answer Key

Name: Janiyah Booth Date: 05-23-2022 Student Exploration: Growing Plants Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and prompts in the orange boxes. Vocabulary: compost, fair test, fertilizer, mass, seed, soil, variable Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.) 1. What do you think plants need to grow and stay healthy? To develop and maintain excellent health, plants require water, healthy soil, and sunlight. 2. Soil is a combination of tiny rock fragments and decayed plant materials. How do you think soil helps a plant? The nutrients plants require to keep healthy are provided by the soil. Gizmo Warm-up: Grow the Biggest Plant! 1. In the Gizmo set up the four pots however you like: ● Choose a seed to drag into each pot. ● Click on the light bulbs to turn them on or off. ● Drag the Water slider up or down to set the amount of water each plant will get. ● If you like, drag fertilizer or compost into a pot. ● When the pots are ready, click Play ( simulation to end. ) and wait for the 2. How tall was your tallest plant? My tallest plant measures 54.3 cm in height. 3. Click Reset ( ) and Clear pots. Run a few more trials to grow the tallest plants you can. What conditions led to the tallest plant? The circumstances with 60ml of water and compost produced the tallest plant ( I used the bean seed). Get the Gizmo ready: Activity A: ● ● Wet and dry Click Reset. Click Clear pots. Question: Do seeds need water to grow? 1. Form hypothesis: Do you think seeds need water to start growing? Explain why or why not. The plant will grow if there is more water than is necessary. 2. Set up Gizmo: In the Gizmo, set up the three pots like this: ● ● ● ● Pot A: Tomato seed, two lights on, 0 mL water per day Pot B: Tomato seed, two lights on, 40 mL water per day Pot C: Tomato seed, two lights on, 70 mL water per day Pot D: Bean seed, two lights on, 100 mL water per day 3. Experiment: Click Play to start. When the simulation is done, observe the plants. 4. Collect data: Fill in the data table below with the height and mass of each plant on day 50. (The mass of a plant is the amount of matter in the plant. It is related to how heavy it is.) In the last column describe what each plant looks like. Pot A Water/day (mL) Height (cm) Mass (g) Appearance 0 mL 0 cm 0g Plant A has no growth. 50 cm 5.0 g Although it took a little longer to grow than plant C, plant B appears to be in good health. 53.9 cm 5.0 g The C plant is larger and more robust than the other plants. 40 mL B C 70 mL 5. Draw conclusions: Do seeds need water to grow? Explain. For growing, seeds require a lot of water. 6. Revise and repeat: Is more water always better? Create your own experiments to find the ideal amount of water for each kind of plant. Explain your findings below. It depends on the type of seed that is being cultivated whether or not more water is always better. For instance, a bean seed needs 100 mL of water to grow robust and healthy, whereas tomato and turnip seeds require more than that and become ill. Get the Gizmo ready: Activity B: ● ● Light and dark Click Reset. Click Clear pots. Introduction: A variable is something that can be changed, such as the amount of light. In a fair test, only one variable is changed at a time. For example, if you are testing how light affects plants, you would change the amount of light but give each plant the same amount of water and the same kind of soil. Question: How does the amount of light affect how plants grow? 1. Form hypothesis: How do you think the amount of light affects how plants grow? The plant will develop and be healthy if there is plenty of light. 2. Set up Gizmo: In the Gizmo, place a bean seed in each pot. Set the Daily water to 70 mL in each pot. Turn off all the lights in pot A. Turn on one light in pot B. Turn on two lights in pot C. Turn on three lights in pot D. 3. Collect data: Click Play and wait for the simulation to finish. Fill in the table below. Pot A Number of lights 0 lights Height (cm) on day 30 Mass (g) on day 30 Appearance on day 30 9 cm 1.1 g Plant A looks strong and healthy with nice mass. 0.2 g Plant B seems sickly in general, with a lack of bulk that is dry and thin. 0.1 g With no leaves and a very little mass, Plant C seems grey and quite unheathing. 1 light B 12 cm 2 lights C 14 cm 4. Draw conclusions: How did the amount of light affect bean plants? According to the findings, there is a rise in height but a drop in mass when there is little to no light. 5. Think and discuss: Why do you think plants grown with less light might grow taller than plants grown with more light? If possible, talk about this with your classmates and teacher. According to the information and what I have already observed, seeds require a lot of light to develop into healthy plants. Activity C: Get the Gizmo ready: Design an experiment ● ● Click Reset. Click Clear pots. Question: You come up with the question! (See below.) 1. Create question: Fill in the blanks below with the variable and the type of plant you would like to study in this activity. (Do not repeat an experiment you have already done.) How does the soil contents affect a mass plant? 2. Form hypothesis: What is your hypothesis for the question above? The mass of the plant will be substantial if the soil contains more fertilizer and compost. 3. Set up Gizmo: Set up the pots to test the variable you are investigating. Be sure to create a fair test. Describe how you set up each pot in the table below. Pot Type of seed Water/day Number of lights Type of soil A tomato 50 mL day 1 3 fertilizer B tomato 50 mL day 1 3 fertilizer and compost C tomato 50 mL day 1 3 regular soil 4. Collect data: Click Play to start. When the simulation is done, fill in the table below. Pot Height (cm) Mass (g) Appearance A 13.6 cm 3.7 g Plant A resembles Plant B in appearance and height, and health. B 13.51 cm 3.7 g Plant B has a similar height, health, and appearance to Plant A. C 9.1 cm 2.6 g Plant C appears to be shorter and healthier, but still fine. 5. Draw conclusions: What did you discover? Why do you think it happened that way? I learned that compost is not necessary for improved plant mass, although fertilizer can boost plant mass.