By Alex Levy, Maggie Miller, and Lauren Gillott Biology 9 Determining the Rate of Brassica rapa Flower Development with High and Low Nutrient Levels

Brassica Includes: Mustard plants Cabbages Broccoli brussel sprouts Cauliflower Turnip Chinese cabbage. Cruciferae family- all of the plants have 4 flowers in the form of a crucifix.

Development of Brassica rapa University of Wisconsin Professor Emeritus Paul H. Williams Beneficial traits of Brassica Rapa speed in flowering reproducing quickly small sized easily grown Need to grow: Water Fertilizer Fluorescent light

Life Cycle of Brassica rapa Growth Pollination Flowering Reproducing Seeds Dying 6 months  5 weeks The days in the picture are approximate values only

Hypothesis and Purpose Hypothesis: the plants with a higher nutrient level will take fewer days to flower than the plant with the lower nutrient level. Purpose: to determine if a plant with a higher nutrient level will flower faster than a plant with a lower nutrient level.

Why We Chose the Dependent Variable Days to Flower Different form of measurement

Variables Independent Variable: the amount of nutrient in the soil (6 pieces of Osmocote per plant or 1 piece per plant) Dependent Variable: the days that is takes for the plants to flower Constant: temperature, amount of light, amount of water, amount of soil, growth environment (blue boxes), bottles grown in, and time to grow Experimental Group: all of the 96 plants in Ms. Tucker’s 9 th grade Biology classes.

Apparatus

Synopsis of Methodology Made growth boxes and growth bottles. Planted 6 seeds in a low nutrient soil and 6 seeds in a high nutrient soil. Made a chart in our lab notebooks for height, color of cotyledon, color of stem, and our dependent variable, and days to flower Took measurements for height with ruler by centimeters Once flowers were visible, we noted in days to flower chart that a seed had flowered on the appropriate day This was all recorded in our lab notebook

Inconclusive Results Spring Break Days 18 and 20 were added in at random Days to flower should be the same in all plants DATA

P = G x E Phenotype = Genotype X Environment Phenotype- appearance Genotype- genetic make up Environment- living situation

Conclusion Problems with the Experiment Small mistakes Spring break Plants dying Other things changed than nutrient level

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