For the past 2 weeks my class planted seeds. We planted two different seeds. One was a controlled and the other was a manipulated. The controlled had all the variables it needed, water, soil, light, air, and fertilizer. The manipulated had one changed variable. My group changed the soil into sand.

Today our largest controlled plant measures 7 centimeters tall. It was growing almost straight up. The soil is wet. The controlled plant has lots of healthy leaves. The biggest leaf measures 2.5 centimeters long. Both the leaves and the buds are green. The plant with the most flower buds has 12 buds.

Our largest manipulated plant measures 7 and a half centimeters. It has 23 buds. The other three manipulated plants didn’t grow as well. Two of them were pretty small. The last one didn’t grow at all. All of the four manipulated plants together has 12 leaves. The manipulated plant had fewer leaves than the controlled.  The manipulated plant was heavier than the controlled plant. Maybe the reason is that sand is heavier than soil. Or maybe we just packed the sand tighter than soil.

My conclusion is that the largest controlled and the largest manipulated plants grew similarly well. I think overall the controlled group are growing much better than the manipulated. My conclusion about soil versus sand is that plants grow better in soil than in sand, because sand does not have as much nutrients and minerals to support the plant growth.

These are our manipulated plants on Monday, May 15th, 2017.

These are our controlled plants on Monday, May 15th, 2017.