Plants Under the Sun Carly Ray

Abstract The purpose of this experiment was to see which flower would react to the movement of the Sun by tilting it’s head toward the Sun. In order to conduct the experiment, three different types of flowers, including English Primrose, Stock and Cyclamen, were placed outside on their side. Every day the amount that each flower turns upward toward the Sun was measured. It was hypothesized that if a Stock, Primrose, and Cyclamen are placed outside in a sunny area, turned on their side, then the Primrose will respond to the sun by tilting its flower head upwards the best, because Primroses have the stiffest stem of all the flowers being tested, which helps it not be affected by gravity, which could affect it by pulling it towards the ground. After collecting data it was found that In the experiment the hypothesis was rejected because it originally stated that the English Primroses would have the greatest result. After the experiment was held, the result showed that Cyclamen had the best results. During the experiment there was not many mistakes made. The few problems that were encountered were easily fixed like water and soil spills. In future variations of this experiment it is hoped that it would be conducted in a warmer season so that the flowers had more data to collect. Also, it is hoped that different flowers were used to collect different data.

Background Research Photosynthesis is the process that plants use to harness energy from the sun. The sun can have a big effect on plants, such as helping it to grow and reproduce. The times of the year could also have a major affect plant response. If one season has longer days than others some plants will grow better and vice versa. There are many variables that can effect plant growth. Photosynthesis is a very important part of plant growth. Photosynthesis is how plants “eat”. Plants can make their own food as long as they have carbon dioxide, light, and water. Given these three things they make sugar and oxygen which benefits humans. Photosynthesis happens in all plants. Plants need photosynthesis to exist. The formula for photosynthesis is 6CO2 + 6H2O ------> C6H12O6 + 6O2. This means that in the presence of light, six mulls of carbon dioxide plus six mulls of water is converted to glucose plus six mulls of oxygen.

Background Research The Sun could also have a major effect on plant growth. The light which comes from the Sun sustains every living thing on earth. Plants need light in order to photosynthesize. Light is needed for plants grow tall and healthy, but that doesn’t they can’t grow without light. Plant can grow without sunlight, they just won’t be healthy. Although, different seasons have different amounts of sunlight, which can effect plant growth. Some plants need more sunlight than others and vice versa. That means that in winter some plants will grow will others die in the summer the same thing happens. There are three other things that factor in. the quantity of light, the quality of light and the duration of light. Light quantity is how intense or concentrated the light is. Light quality is the wave length that reaches the plant. And lastly, light duration is the amount of time the plant has been exposed to. In conclusion, there are many things that may affect plant growth. Some may effect them negatively, although most have a positive effect.

Research Question What effect would the sun have on have on the movement of plants?

Hypothesis If a Stock, Primrose, and Cyclamen are placed outside in a sunny area, turned on their side, then the Primrose will respond to the sun by tilting its flower head upwards the best, because Primroses have the stiffest stem of all the flowers being tested, which helps it not be affected by gravity, which could affect it by pulling it towards the ground.

Variables Independent: The type of flower being tested. Dependent: The movement of the different flowers.

Control Group The same kind of flowers that are being tested will be under an unmoving stationary lamp.

Constants Size of the pots Type of soil Types of flowers Spacing between the flowers The season of the year in which experiment is being held

Materials 2 Cyclamen 2 English Primroses 2 Stock 1 Stationary Lamp Water 6 Flower pots Protractor Ruler

Procedure Place the flowers in equally sized pots Make sure each flower is 1 inch below soil Put one of each different type of flower outside, and put one of each different type of flower inside underneath a stationary lamp Measure the movement of each flower daily by checking how much the flower is leaning upwards

Data Flower Day # Results Stock 1 0 cm Cyclamen English Primrose 3 cm 2 8 cm 3.5 cm 3 14 cm 6 cm 4 15 cm 9 cm 5 16 cm 9.5 cm

Graph

Conclusion In the experiment, Plants Under the Sun, the hypothesis was rejected because it originally stated that the English Primroses would have the greatest result. After the experiment was held, the result showed that Cyclamen had the best results. In the experiment, the Cyclamen had tilted its head towards the sun much higher than the other two flowers. This was caused by the size of the Cyclamen’s flower head, which helped it absorb the sunlight and also lean towards the Sun. These results show the hypothesis was rejected because it stated that if a Primrose, Cyclamen and Stock were placed outside in a sunny area on their side, then the Primrose would respond to the sun the best because it has a thick stem and therefore would not be affected by gravity which would make it easier to tilt its head towards the sun. The results actually showed that the Cyclamen responded the best to the sun because it had a bigger flower head which made it easier to respond to the sun. During the experiment there was not many mistakes made. The few problems that were encountered were easily fixed like water and soil spills. The biggest mistake was using a Stock flower instead of another flower. The Stock provided no data and the experiment would’ve had more data without it. Also the experiment would’ve had better results if it was conducted in the summer because flowers grow better in the summer because of more sunlight.  

Future Research If the experiment were conducted for a second time, there would’ve been better results if a few things were changed. The season in which the experiment was conducted should’ve been spring or summer for better results. There could’ve been a more wide variety of flowers for better results. Some of the flowers tested didn’t have a lot of data to collect. The experiment could have been a lot more successful if these measures were taken.

Work Cited “Photosynthesis –Part 1: The Sun and Light.” Biology4kids.com: Plants: Photosynthesis. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2016 “The Effects of Light on Plants.” The Effects of Light on Plants. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2016 Vidyasagar, By Aparna. “What is Photosynthesis?” LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 31 July 2015. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2016