1. Is Water Really the Best?
Grate Stewdant
Dozier Middle School
6th Grade
Mrs. Marioneaux
December 1, 2011

2. Abstract
Just like animals, plants need a lot of fluids to survive. In nature, they use their roots to absorb water from the ground in order to stay healthy. But is water always the best liquid to use on plants. For example, people make fertilizers that are better than the ones in nature and plants that use these man-made fertilizers grow bigger. Could adding liquids with sugar in them add nutrients to the soil that help make the plants grow better? In this experiment, different liquids were added to bean plants to see if the plants would grow taller. The four different liquids were Pepsi, orange juice, milk, and water. There were 5 plants in each group and the plants getting water were set aside as the control group. Even after the first day, it became evident that the plants not getting water were not growing as much. After five days, the plants getting Pepsi were wilted and sick looking with an average of 1 mm growth per day, the plants getting orange had juice averaged 3.5 mm per day and they were dead, and the plants getting milk had only averaged two millimeters per day. However, the plants receiving water had averaged six millimeters growth per day, were healthy, and had some flowers starting to form. This experiment proved that water really is the best liquid to help plants grow.

3. Purpose
Is water really the best liquid to put on plants to make them grow? I got interested in this project when I saw someone throw away half a cup of soda on someone’s garden plants. I wondered if the sugar in the soda would help the plants grow better. I think that the results of this experiment could help gardeners grow bigger and stronger plants.

4. Problem
What is the effect of different liquids on the growth rate of bean plants?

5. Literature Search
There are many different types of sugars. There are white sugars, brown sugars, and even liquid sugars.
The chemical names for the different sugars are: sucrose – table sugar, fructose – fruit sugar, lactose – milk sugar, and maltose – grain sugar
Glucose is a sugar made by plants during photosynthesis. People get glucose when we eat plants. It is then used by every cell in our body in order to stay alive.

6. I also learned that . . .
Every plant in the world makes at least a little sugar, but sugar cane and sugar beets have the most.
Plants grow from seeds. In order for the seeds to germinate, or sprout, they need water. After they start to grow, their roots pull water up from the soil to keep them healthy.
If sugars are put into water, then the plants cannot pull the water up from the soil. It will also attract insect pests and fungus. Most plants will suddenly wilt and/or die.

7. Experimental Design
Independent Variable: The different types of liquids
Pepsi - 5 plants
Orange Juice - 5 plants
Milk - 5 plants
Water - 5 plants
Dependent Variable: The growth of the bean plants
Constants: The type of bean plants, the amount of liquid, the soil, the pot, and the amount of sunlight
Control Group: The plants with water

8. Hypothesis
If Pepsi is added to the soil around plants, then those plants will grow taller.

9. Materials 20 Blue Lake green bean seeds 20 identical small pots
1 large bag of potting soil
Measuring cup
Spoon
Sunny area to place all plants for one month

10. Procedure Place the same amount of dirt in each pot
Plant one seed in each pot and place in warm sunny location
Water with 50 ml of water per day until the plants are all about 6 inches tall
In 5 pots, use Pepsi instead of water
In 5 other pots, use Orange juice
In 5 other pots, use milk
In the last 5 pots, continue using water
Measure the growth of the plants for 7 days

11. Results Pepsi Orange Juice Milk Water Day 1 2.5 mm 2mm 4mm Day 2 1.5mm
Wilted
Day 5
0.5 mm
Turned brown
6mm
Day 6
0mm
Turned Yellow
Roots black
Day 7
Looks sick
Dead
wilted
7mm
Bushy, flowers
Totals
7 mm
3.5 mm
14 mm
35 mm
Averages
1 mm / day
0.5 mm / day
2 mm / day
6 mm / day

12. Graph of Results

13. Conclusion
The purpose of this experiment was to see if adding soda to plants would help them grow. Soda has a lot of sugar in it, and it was thought that it would be nutritious for the plant. However, the literature said that sugar would cause it to wilt and that is exactly what happened. Orange juice has acid in it, and that probably caused those plants to die. The plants with milk on them did not die, but they did not look very healthy either. The plants with water on them were very healthy. If this experiment were to be repeated, then the results would be more relevant if the other liquids had more sugar in them and less acid as the hypothesis focused on only sugar.

14. References
Chi, J. D. (2010). What happens when you water plants with soda?. Retrieved from
Evans, E. (n.d.). Watering houseplants. Retrieved from
Plants. (2010). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 28, 2010, from
Sugar. (2010). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 28, 2010, from
What's cooking america. (n.d.). Retrieved from

15. Growth of Bean Plants

16. Do’s and Don’ts of Formal Writing
For PowerPoint's, always use a font size and style that is easy to read from 6 – 10 feet away
Always write in 3rd person (no pronouns like I, we, you, she, he, me, etc. Instead of “I put the plants out in the sun,” say “The plants were placed out into the sun.”)
Unless you are quoting data, always spell out numbers less than or equal to twelve.
Never Bold Face or italicize words
Never abbreviate anything – spell it out
Never use contractions – spell it out
Use your Science Fair Guidelines for help
All pictures must be of the experiment, not you