Chia Seed Lab Experiment
By: Lindsay Pluister and Brooke Peters
Purpose
Research
Hypothesis and Variables
Our independent variable was the amount of soil. Our dependent variable was how tall the chia plant grew in centimeters. Our controlled variables that satyed the same in each test group was the size of the pot, amount of time in the sun, amount of water, soil brand. And finally, the extraneous variables that we could not control in the experiment were the amount of sunlight the plants get, if one batch of soil has more nutrients than the other. We hypothesized that, if we change the amount of soil used to grow a chia plant, then 4 grams of soil will allow the plant to grow the highest because it will give it enough room to grow without too much soil.
Lab set up
Procedure:
Gather your materials
Fill 1 dixie cup with 2 grams of soil, another with 4 grams, another with 6 grams, and one more 8 grams of soil.
Plant 5 chia seeds in each cup.
Water each cup with the same amount of water daily for 7 days.
Measure the growth of each plant every day in centimeters, for 7 days.
Record in your data table
Results
2 grams: 5 cm tall after 7 days
4 grams: 5.5 cm tall after 7 days
6 grams(control): 4.5 cm tall after 7 days
8 grams: 3.5 cm tall after 7 days
None of our plants sprouted until the fifth day, but once they did, their growth stayed fairly consistent. The plant with 2 grams of soil grew 2 cm the 5th day, 4 cm the 6th day, and ended with 5 cm on day 7. The plant with 4 grams of soil grew 2.5 cm the 5th day, 4.5 cm the 6th day, and ended with 5.5 cm on day 7. The plant with 6 grams of soil, our constant, grew 1 cm the 5th day, 3.5 cm the 6th day, and ended with 4.5 cm on day 7. Finally, the plant with 8 grams of soil grew .5 cm the 5th day, 2.5 cm the 6th day, and ended with 3.5 cm on day 7.
Conclusion
In this lab we were testing how the amount of soil affects how tall a chia plant will grow in centimeters in a week. We hypothesized that if we changed the amount of soil used to grow a chia plant, then 4 grams of soil will grow the highest because it will give it enough room to grow without too much soil that would absorb all the water. Our results showed us that 2 grams of soil grew to 5 cm, 4 grams grew to be 5.5 cm, 6 grams grew to be 4.5 cm, and 8 grams grew to be 3.5 cm after seven days. This proved our hypothesis because in the end, it was the 4 grams of soil that grew the tallest chia plant. One error that we made during our experiment was not checking the growth of the plants on day 3 and day 4 because of days off of school and weekends. Some variables that we were not able to control was the amount of carbon dioxide that eat plant took in while it was growing and going through the process of photosynthesis, and the initial amount of nutrients each seed had inside of them from the beginning. Unfortunately it would be near impossible for us to control these variables in future testing.