How Does Cellophane Effect the Growth of Alfalfa Sprouts?
Essay by hinbqefigb • February 3, 2019 • Lab Report • 523 Words (3 Pages) • 1,005 Views
Essay Preview: How Does Cellophane Effect the Growth of Alfalfa Sprouts?
Title
How does cellophane effect the growth of alfalfa sprouts?
Introduction
Background Information
- Alfalfa is a plant used by humans for food, and in many cultures, as a plant for healing and medicine. It is also a prolific plant grown all over the world, often harvested in youth, which can also grow in cotton.
Aim
- To investigate the growth of alfalfa seeds when placed in different environments.
Independent Variable
- The independent variable in this experiment is the environment in which the alfalfa is growing in. (cellophane)
Dependent Variable
- The growth of the alfalfa sprouts
Hypothesis
- If we place darker coloured cellophane over the cup, then the alfalfa seeds will grow faster because light is absorbed quicker by darker colours.
Materials
- Alfalfa seeds- Petri dishes /clear plastic cups (4-6)
- Cotton wool- Saline solution (1%, 5 %, 10 %, 15 % concentrations)
- Incubator 37oC- Fluorescent light to provide constant 24 hr light source.
Method
- Place 4 cotton wool in plastic cup and spread it out so that it covers the base.
- Pour an appropriate amount of distilled water into the cup making sure that the cotton is wet.
- Next place Alfalfa seeds into the cup evenly.
- Put the cellophane over the top making sure it covers the whole top.
- Tape the cellophane to the top making sure it covers the cup.
- Label the cups and place cup in an incubator.
- Repeat steps for three cups using different cellophane.
Results
Celophane Colour | Height Day 1 | Height Day 3 |
RED | 0 | 2.1cm |
PURPLE | 0 | 1.6cm |
BLUE | 0 | 1.3cm |
Discussion
From the data and results (refer to table 1), it is clear that the alfalfa seeds placed under the red cellophane grew the longest at 2.1cm in comparison to the purple and red cellophane which grew at a smaller rate (1.6cm and 1.3cm respectively). A trend that can be observed is that the darker the colour of the cellophane the more the seeds grew in height. A limitation of the data was that the amount of cotton wool and seeds used were not controlled and different amounts were placed in the different cups. Because of this, results that were gathered could have varied.
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