⬇️ Roots and turning the seed: the whole packet

⬇️ Roots and turning the seed · 3rd–7th grade · 7 days of testing · free · 15 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 the beans are turned on day three, then how many of the three roots in a bag have their tips pointing down on day seven 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

• 🫘 Dried beans from the grocery bag (pinto, lima or kidney): 27, all the same kind
• 🥣 A big bowl: 1, for soaking
• 🛍️ Plastic bags: 9 zip bags
• 🧻 Paper towels
• 📦 Flat cardboard: 3 pieces, bigger than three bags side by side
• 🚰 Water from the tap
• 🩹 Masking tape, to mark lines
• 🖍️ Crayons or markers

Be safe: 👶 Small parts · 🧼 Wash your hands after · 🚫 Test food is not for eating

1. Soak 27 beans in a big bowl of water overnight.
2. Fold a damp paper towel to fit inside each of nine zip bags.
3. Slide three beans between the towel and the front of each bag, spaced out in a row.
4. Zip each bag almost shut, and tape three bags onto each piece of cardboard.
5. Label the boards never, quarter and upside down, and stand them against a wall in one warm room.
6. Every day, add a few drops of water to any dry towel, and tell a grown-up if a bag smells bad.
7. On day three, check that every bean has a short root.
8. Leave the first board as it is, turn the second a quarter turn, and turn the third upside down.
9. Stand the boards up again, and watch the roots each day.
10. On day seven, count the roots in each bag with their tips pointing down, and write it in your table.
11. Find the mean count for each way of turning and draw a bar graph.
12. Wash your hands after touching the beans, and never eat them.

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

I changed: Turned on day 3   I measured: how many of the three roots in a bag have their tips pointing down on day seven (roots pointing down, of 3)

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: turned on day 3 along the bottom, roots pointing down, of 3 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: count the bent roots after one, two and three days since the turn, and draw a line of how many point down each day.

1. What made you want to ask this question? Say something like: I wanted to know: do roots grow down even if you turn the seed?
2. What did you think would happen, and why? Say something like: I thought changing how the beans are turned on day three would change how many of the three roots in a bag have their tips pointing down on day seven, and I wrote down why.
3. What did you change, and what did you measure? Say something like: I changed how the beans are turned on day three (Never turned, A quarter turn, Upside down) and measured how many of the three roots in a bag have their tips pointing down on day seven in roots pointing down, of 3.
4. What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? Say something like: I kept the same kind of bean, soaked overnight and three beans and a damp towel in every bag the same, so only how the beans are turned on day three 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: Never turned and Upside down 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: count the bent roots after one, two and three days since the turn, and draw a line of how many point down each day.