Chia Seeds Lab
How different light affects the growth of Chia Seeds
By: Alyssa Velasquez & Blake Varsolona
Purpose
Hypothesis
Variables
- The type of lighting the plants get.
- One plant will be placed under artificial light and one plant will be placed under natural sunlight.
Dependent Variables
- The height of each plant.
Extraneous Variables
- The weather, meaning the amount of sunlight the control plant will get.
Control variables
- The amount of soil given to each plant.
- The amount of water given to each plant.
- The pot each plant is planted in.
Lab Setup
- Put even amounts of soil in two different petri dishes
- Put three seeds in each petri dish
- Put 10ml of water in each petri dish
- Place one petri dish under the artificial light
- Place one petri dish on the window so natural sunlight hits the plant
- Wait and record results (there were none)
Why It Didn't Work...
- The environment in which we grew our Chia seeds was too cool. Chia seeds like to be grown in tempters within 70-85° F
- We chose a shallow petri dish in which to grow our Chia seeds, therefore there wasn't not much room for our seeds to grow because their roots couldn't take hold
If you could do the lab again based on your data what would you do to further knowledge your topic?
- The first thing would be to plant the seeds in a bigger "pot''. Such as a vase.
- The second thing that we would do differently would be to put more seeds in the pot. This would be to have a greater chance of having sprouts.
Research
the intensity of the light drops rapidly the further the plant is moved from the window. A simple move of two or three feet away from a window can reduce the light intensity by more than 50 percent.
North facing windows tend to have the weakest light intensity and are often in relatively deep shade throughout the window. It may be possible to grow shade-loving plants in a north-facing window during the summer months, but in the winter, these windows are usually not conducive to plant growth.
South facing windows; The sun follows a slightly southern east-to-west arc across the sky, southern windows usually have strong light intensity. Plants placed in unblocked southern windows will typically receive the most light.
East facing windows benefit from the morning sun, when the rays are not quite as strong. They’re are often good for plants that need moderate sunlight or morning sunlight only.
West windows get the full afternoon and evening sun, which can be surprisingly strong in the summer. Although they don't get the same intensity of light as southern exposures, a west-facing window is a good place for your sun-loving plants.