How the color of light affects the rate of germination. By: Ashley Fuller Team Name/Group: Dalin Kash Cailin Dowd, Kali Nunn, Danielle Keskinen

Project Idea/Problem We are going to test how the light affects the germination growth of Rainbow Corn( Zea Mays). Problem: Does the color of the light affect the germination rate of a rainbow corn seeds.

Hypothesis If the color of light effects the rate of germination, then the green light will cause the seed to germinate faster, because the green light will connect to the chlorophyll, and it’s more transparent, also the red light is darker, so the sunlight won’t reach the seed as easily as the green.

Variables Dependent Variable- Clear Filter Independent Variable- The color of the light Constant Variables- Amount of water, temperature, and the location.

Procedures 1. Get red, clear, and green 2 liter plastic bottles. (only 3 bottles) 2. Get 3 Petri dishes. 3. Take the lid off of the Petri dishes, marker, and the bottles. 4. Use the lid of the Petri dish as a template to draw a circle on the plastic bottles. 5 Cut out that template drawings from the bottles. 6. Tape the plastic circles that you just cut out onto the Petri dish lid. 7. Line the inside of the Petri dishes with paper towels. 8. Get 15 corn seeds. (Zea Mays) 9. Number the Petri dishes 5 for each Petri dish. 10. Place a seed next to each number in the Petri dish. 11. Water the seeds with 5 mL of water. 12. Observe and water the seeds every other day. 13. Measure longest root length of each seed. 14. Record data in chart.

Materials 3 Petri dishes Tap water Zea Mays(rainbow corn seeds)-you need 15 seeds Paper towels Measuring cup(preferred in mL) 3 2-liter bottles, in red, green, and clear Permanent marker Camera

Research Plants tend to grow better in blue and red violet light, except for yellow, orange, or green light. Red light has longer wavelengths and lower energy, this takes longer for a plant to absorb the energy because of the longer wavelengths. Different color lights have different energy levels, purple and violet have the highest and it has short wavelengths. The shorter wavelength means that it has a higher energy level.

Results- Day 1averages Measured in cm

Results- Day 2 averages Measured in cm 27.62

Results- Day 3 averages Measured in cm 12.12 11.08

Data Analysis Day 1: The Dark Red Filter seeds had the most growth because it had more access to sunlight, we did improve our testing chambers so they have equal amount of access to the sunlight. Day 2: The Clear Filter has the greatest amount of growth, then Dark Red and in last Green. Day 3: Clear remained in the lead, Dark Red in second, and Green in last.

Conclusion Our data did not support our hypothesis because the Clear Filter seeds had the highest average of growth overall. The Green Filter seeds actually had the least amount of averaged growth, and we were surprised that the Dark Red Filter had done as well as it did.

Bibliography Our mentor Ben Vanderweide http://www.colormatters.com/plant-growth- and-light-color http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key= 2853

Pictures Dark Red Filter Clear Filter Green Filter