🍃 Leaf bags in sun and shade: the whole packet

🍃 Leaf bags in sun and shade · 4th–8th grade · 1 day of testing · free · 200 minutes a sitting

My days, if the fair is 14 days away

Count back from your fair day and write in each date. Fewer days than this? The jobs share days, in this order; nothing is skipped.

Dates from my teacher

• My question is due
• Testing starts
• My results table and graph are due
• My board is due

In this packet

1. 🗓️ My project plan
2. 💭 My hypothesis
3. 🧺 Change, measure, keep the same
4. 🪜 My steps
5. 📊 My results
6. 📓 My logbook
7. ✅ My conclusion
8. ✂️ Board titles to cut out
9. 🏅 The judge's questions and my certificate

If I change how much sun the leaves get, then how many drops of water collect in the bag in three hours will ________________, because _____________________________________________

What I think will happen, in my own words:

3 levels × 3 tries at each = 9 tries in all. If anything you keep the same changes, you won't know which change made the difference.

What I need

• 🌿 A leafy bush or tree outside, or a big potted plant: a bush or tree with branches in sun and in shade
• 🛍️ Plastic bags: 9 clear ones, big enough to cover a leafy branch
• ➰ Rubber bands: 9
• 🩹 Masking tape, to mark lines
• 🖍️ Crayons or markers
• 🥛 Clear plastic cups, all the same size: 9
• 💧 An eyedropper or a medicine dropper

Be safe: 🌳 Outside · 😎 Never look at the sun · 🧼 Wash your hands after

1. With a grown-up, pick a bush or tree that has branches in full sun, part shade and full shade.
2. Write sun, part or shade on a bit of masking tape, three of each, and stick one on each bag.
3. Choose nine leafy branches that are still on the plant, three in each spot, with about the same leaves.
4. Slip a clear bag over each branch and close its mouth around the stem with a rubber band, not too tight.
5. Write down the time, and never look at the sun while you work.
6. Leave the bags on for three hours on a dry day.
7. Slide each bag off its branch for good and pour its water into its own clear cup.
8. Draw up each cup's water with the dropper and count the drops as you squeeze them back out.
9. Write each count in your results table.
10. Find the mean drops for each spot and draw a bar graph.
11. Wash your hands after touching the plants.

Write each number in your results table the moment you measure it.

I changed: Where the branch is   I measured: how many drops of water collect in the bag in three hours (drops)

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: where the branch is along the bottom, drops up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

Write something every day you work on it, even the days you only gather things. More days? The three-page logbook prints from peabody.kids/science-fair/templates/logbook.

My hypothesis was ☐ right ☐ partly right ☐ not right.

I know because my numbers show:

What surprised me, or what might have gone wrong (7th and up):

Next time I would test:

Idea: Change a second thing: bag a thin-leaved plant and a thick, waxy-leaved plant in the same spot, and graph the drops for each.

1. What made you want to ask this question? Say something like: I wanted to know: do leaves give off more water in sun or shade?
2. What did you think would happen, and why? Say something like: I thought changing how much sun the leaves get would change how many drops of water collect in the bag in three hours, and I wrote down why.
3. What did you change, and what did you measure? Say something like: I changed how much sun the leaves get (Full sun, Part shade, Full shade) and measured how many drops of water collect in the bag in three hours in drops.
4. What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? Say something like: I kept the same kind of plant, with about the same number of leaves in each bag and bags of the same size the same, so only how much sun the leaves get was different.
5. How many times did you test it? Say something like: 3 times at each of my 3 levels, and I found the middle number.
6. What did you find out? Show me in your numbers. Say something like: Look at my table: Full sun and Full shade gave different numbers, and here's the pattern.
7. Was your hypothesis right? How do you know? Say something like: My numbers show whether I was right, partly right or not, and I can show you where.
8. Did anything go wrong, or surprise you? Say something like: One try was odd, so I did it again and wrote it in my logbook.
9. If you did it again, what would you change or test next? Say something like: I'd change a second thing: bag a thin-leaved plant and a thick, waxy-leaved plant in the same spot, and graph the drops for each.