The purpose of this experiment was to determine the minimum concentration
of chlorine that would inhibit 50% of the soybean germination.
I became interested in this idea when I saw on the news that a lot of
countries that have sanitizers for their water use chlorine to help purify it.
A lot of the citizens will use the water that was previously purified with
chlorine on their plants and maybe even their crops. Also soybeans are
important to world agriculture and are a large part of the diet in many
countries.
The information gained from this experiment could help farmers, botanists
and anyone who is involved in or has a job in agriculture.
Hypothesis
My first hypothesis was that the 10-milliliter chlorine mixture would
prevent the 50% of the seeds from germinating.
My second hypothesis was that the 0.625-milliliter chlorine mixture would
not inhibit any of the seeds from germinating.
I based my hypotheses on the fact that the Turkish Department of
Wastewater Reuse filters use 1-milliliter to 5-milliliters of chlorine per
liter of wastewater in the filtration process. Also the Turkish Department of
Wastewater Refuse stated that using more than 5-milliliters of chlorine per
liter should prove to have deadly side affects to plants.
Experiment design
The constants in this study were:
1) The number of soybean seeds in
each group.
2) The amount of light each group receives.
3) The amount of chlorine water mixture each designated group receives.
4) The environment the soybeans are grown in such as the temperature, and
the humidity.
5) The type of container the soybeans are grown in.
6) The type of sand the soybeans are grown in.
7) The amount of sand the soybeans are grown in.
The manipulated variable was the concentration of chlorine in the water
that the soybeans were given.
The responding variable was the percentage of germination of seeds in
each group.
To measure the responding variable I counted the number of seeds that
germinated in each group.
Materials
|
Quantity
|
Item description
|
|
3
|
Graduated
Cylinders
|
|
1,296
|
Soybean
Seeds
|
|
1
Gallon
|
Gallon
Chlorine (Household Bleach)
|
|
6
|
72
cup Garden Planters
|
|
1
|
Marker
|
|
1
|
Pair
of scissors
|
|
1
|
Roll
of tape
|
|
6
|
1
Gallon water containers
|
|
1
Bag
|
Pure
chemical free playground sand
|
|
1
|
Growth
light
|
Procedures
1. Labeling the planters.
A. Label the first planter “Control”.
B. Label the second planter “O.625ml”.
C. Label the third planter “1.25ml”.
D. Label the fourth planter “2.5ml”.
E. Label the fifth planter “5.0ml”.
F. Label the sixth planter “10.0ml”.
2. Labeling the water containers.
A. Label the first container “Control”.
B. Label the second container
“O.625ml”.
C. Label the third container “1.25ml”.
D. Label the fourth container “2.5ml”.
E. Label the fifth container “5.0ml”.
F. Label the sixth container “10.0ml”.
3. Filling the sand
planters.
A. Measure out 30 ml of chemical free
playground sand.
B. Pour the sand into the first cup of
the Control planter.
C. Repeat procedures “3-A through 3-B”
for each of the other cups in all the other planters.
4. Planting the seeds.
A. Plant three soybean seeds in each of
the cups for a total of 216 beans planted in each planter.
B. Be sure to plant all the seeds at
least a quarter an inch under the sand.
5. Setting up the growth light.
A. Attach a light to a shelf or a
surface directly above the planters.
B. Leave the light on all day and all
night until the experiment is completed.
6. Mixing the Chlorine Solutions.
A. Using the graduated cylinder measure
out 3 liters of water.
B. Pour the water into the container
labeled “Control”.
C. This is your control solution.
D. Measure out 10 ml of chlorine.
E. Measure out another 3 liters of
water.
F. Mix the 10 ml of chlorine and water
together to create the 10 ml chlorine mixture.
G. Pour the 10 ml solution into the 10
ml container.
H. Repeat steps “6-B through 6-F” four
more times, except replace thev10 ml of chlorine with the remaining solutions,
5 ml, 2.5 ml, 1.25 ml, and 0.625 ml.
7. Watering the seeds.
A. Water the Control planter with 10
ml’s of water from its matching water container.
B. Repeat step “7-A” with the other
planters but water using the planters matching water containers.
C. Water the plants every day until at
least 90% of the Control planter germinates.
8. Recoding the results.
A. After germination of 90%of the
Control group dig up the plants.
B. Record the number of seeds that
germinated.
C. Create a table and graph your
results.
Results
The original purpose
of this experiment was to determine the minimum concentration of chlorine that
would inhibit the germination of soybean seeds up to 50%.
The second original
purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of various
concentrations of chlorine, below the 50% inhibiting amount, on the germination
of soybeans.
After 5 days of
growth, the results of the experiment were:
→ 90% of the soybeans in the Control
group germinated.
→ 82% of the soybean seeds in the
0.0625ml group germinated.
→ 75% of the soybean seeds in the
1.25ml group germinated.
→ 72% of the soybean seeds in the 2.5ml
group germinated.
→ 60% of the soybean seeds in the 5.0ml
group germinated.
→ 46% of the soybean seeds in the
10.0ml group germinated.
Conclusion
My first hypothesis
was that the 10-milliliter chlorine mixture would prevent 50% or more of the
seeds germinating.
My second hypothesis
was that the 0.0625-milliliter chlorine mixture would not inhibit any of the
seeds from germinating.
The results indicate
that my first hypothesis should be accepted because 64% of 10ml group did not
germinate, that was 54% worse than the control group.
The results also
indicate that my second hypothesis should be rejected because 18% of the
0.625ml group did not germinate, that was 8% less that in the control group.
Because of the
results of this experiment, I wonder if the soybeans were watered another group
with 0.03125ml or 0.015625ml of chlorine would the results be better or worse,
I predict better. I also wonder if I watered a group with 15ml or 20ml of
chlorine how much of the group would germinate.
If I were to conduct
this project again I would conduct it outside in the summertime and I would water
them more. I would also use more groups with more seeds. Also maybe use more
soil.
Researched by
--- Joel F
