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Salt
Transpiration through stems.
Transpiration from leaves.
Floatation
Water Cycle

SALT

What do you want to know?
How does the amount of salt in the water affect a plant when it is growing?
What do you think will happen?
Some children think the plant will grow.
Some children think that the low salt will grow and the medium will grow and the high salt one will not.
What do you need?
Water samples
Cotton wool
Seeds
Tray
What did you do?
Collected the things that we needed..
Numbered the trays.
Put the cotton in.
Put 40g of seeds in the tray.
Watered the trays.
What did it look like?

Observations.
The seeds have grown. The roots have grown through the cotton wool and the seed shoots are about 7 cms high.
Some of the seeds germinated in all of the trays.
The highest salt water only grew one shoot and then died.
The seeds on the right grew but not as tall as the seeds on the left. The seeds on the left were watered with the freshest water and they grew tall and were a healthy green colour.
Conclusion.
The amount of salt in the water does affect the growth of the plants.
The higher the salt content, the less the plant grew.
Where the salt content was really high only a few seeds germinated and then died.
The best water for germinating seeds and keeping them healthy is water with very little salt in it.

Back to the top

What do you want to know?
If the pencil will float more easily in the fresh water or the salt water.
What do you think will happen?
The pencil in the salt water will sink and about
1cm of the pencil will be out of the jar.
The one in the fresh water will float with about 6cm
of the pencil out of the water.
What do you need?

• A jar of salt water.

• A jar of fresh water.

• 2 pencils with some plasticine on the points.

What did you do?

Step 1.We mixed up some salt water in one jar.
Step 2.We put some fresh water in the other jar.
Step 3.Added plasticine to the pencils.
Step 4. Put a pencil into each jar.
Observations.
The pencil in the salt water was higher than the one in the fresh water.

Conclusion.
Objects float much more easily in salt water than they do in fresh water.
Salt water is more buoyant.
Erin, Kristy, Caitlin, Melanie, James, Sam

TRANSPIRATION THROUGH STEMS

What do you want to know?
We want to know if the plants petals will change colour.
What do you think will happen? (Prediction)
The petals will change to a different colour.
What do you need;

• Jar

• Rubber band

• Food colouring

• Flowers

What did you do?

1.  Put water into a jar.

2. Put rose pink food dye in and stir.

3. Put flower in the jar.

4. Left over night.

What did it look like?

Observations.
It looked like it was sick because of the colour.
The tips turned light pink and some other plants were different colours. The water level dropped.
Conclusion.
The flowers sucked the coloured water up through their stems and into their petals.
The plant absorbs the water and transports it up through its stems to the leaves and flowers.
The plant then transpires.

TRANSPIRATION THROUGH LEAVES

What do you want to know?
We wanted to know if water comes up through the roots and out through the leaves of a plant.
What do you think will happen?
We thought that when we collected the bag it would be wet.
What do you need?
A plant with large leaves
A small plastic bag
Sunshine
A rubber band
What did you do?
Step.1 We got a plastic bag.
Step.2 We found a plant with large leaves.
Step.3 We put the plastic bag over the leaf.
Step.4 We tied a rubber band around the plastic bag.
What did it look like?
Observations.
The leaf looked like it was sweating. It had water coming off the leaf. There was water on the inside of the bag.
Conclusion.
The plant was transpiring.
The water came up from the roots, through the stem and into the leaf.
The sun was warm and the water from the leaf changed into vapour.
When it cooled it left droplets of water in the bag.
A plant transpires.

THE WATER CYCLE

What do you want to know?
How does the water cycle work?
What do you think will happen?
I think the plant will live because it needs carbon dioxide.
What do you need?

• A jar

• Soil

• Sand

• Pebbles or small rocks

What did you do?
Step.1 Fill the jar with the small rocks first then add the sand and the soil
Step.2 Add the plant.
Step.3 Fill your bottle cap with water and place it in the jar.
Step.4 Put the lid on.
Step 5 Put it in a sunny place.
What did it look like?

Observations.
Day 1 We could see the water on the glass. It is still alive.
Day 2 The water is dripping down the sides of the glass.
Day 3 Some water was on the glass. We pulled the lid off for the first time and there were pools of water on the lid.
Conclusion.
This experiment showed us the water cycle. First the sun warms the water and turns it into a gas. Water vapour collects in the form of clouds. When the water becomes too heavy for clouds to contain it is released as rain sleet or snow. The water is then collected on the earth and the cycle begins again.