PLEASE
INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR LAB WRITEUPS!!!
COVER PAGE!
OPHEOAC
O- what did you initially notice?
P- what is the problem (related to observation)
H-make it educated, use outside info to support, reflect on it in conclusion
E- specific procedure
O-data tables
A- calculations and graphs used in conclusion
C- restate OPHE, discuss data specifically referring directly to the graphs, support this
info directly with outside info.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following are the due dates:
First four steps of scientific method- typed: March 2nd (25 pts)
Data in chart form (typed): March 16th (25 pts)
Final Paper: April 18th (40pts)
Displayboard: April 19th (30 pts)
Powerpoint presentation: April 25th (30pts)
For final products it must be typed and handed in with your inquiry/IRP notebook,
with the rough draft included.
The following is a sample write-up**** It is on the low end of the grading scale, but
should give you an idea of expectations. It does not contain the coverpage, data, graphs,
conclusion or bibliography but should be enough to get you started!!!.
OBSERVATION: I have grown tomato
plants for years and remember my
Grandmother making some sort of a
fertilizer from scratch that helped the plants
grow according to her.
PROBLEM: Can a homemade fertilizer
grow plants as robust as a store bought
fertilizer or none at all?
HYPOTHESIS: I believe that a store
bought fertilizer will grow plants better than
none at all because according to
MiracleGrow.com it states that their product
will increase the yield of plants by 30%.
Therefore I expect these plants to produce
30% more fruit. In further research I found
the active ingredients to be phosphorous,
nitrogen and potassium for plants. These
ingredients are listed on all fertilizers as
three numbers (10:10:10 for instance).
Chemicalmixesforplants.com describes a
recipe for fertilizer that includes coca-cola,
hand detergent, ammonia and water. In
looking at the ingredients on the side of the
labels I noticed that ammonia contains
nitrogen, the soap contains phosphorous and
the coca-cola has potassium in it. If I were
to mix these ingredients properly I could
create a fertilizer that was better suited for
my specific plants needs. Therefore
according to all the previous stated research,
I believe that the homemade fertilizer will
work out the best, followed by store bought
and then the control which has none.
EXPERIMENT: Go to Jung’s and
purchase four packages of better boy tomato
seeds at a cost of $1.45 a pack, one bag of
black dirt at $1.89 per 5 pounds, four ‘flats’
of seed banks @ $2.89 per flat, miracle
grow fertilizer @$4.65 for 8 oz concentrate.
Then go to Super Wal-Mart and buy a liter
of Coke for $1.00, Ammonia @ $3.89 for
12 oz, dawn dish soap 12 oz for $2.34.
Distribute 50 grams of black dirt into each
of the individual pots on the ‘flat’. Place
three tomato seeds into each pot (thin to one,
once they grow). Water daily with 25 ml of
water. After the plants have reached 3cm
tall. Mix the miracle grow according to
directions with 1 liter of water. Take 45 ml
of coke, mix with 25 ml of dawn dishsoap
along with 40 ml of ammonia, combine this
with 250 ml of tap water. Twice a week
while watering add an additional 25ml of
fertilizer to each pot. Record height of
plants, date of flowering, # of tomatoes
produced, weight of picked tomato and any
other noticeable observations (such as
brown spots on leaves or tomatoes)
OBSERVATION: This would be your data table with all recordable #s- In this case it
would be Height of plants, # of tomatoes, Weight of tomatoes.
Height of plants
Control
Wk1
3cm
Wk2
7cm
Wk3 Wk4
11cm 18cm
# of
tomatoes
2 3 3
Miracle
Grow
Wk 5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8
24cm 32cm 40cm 50cm
Wk1 Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 2
3cm 8cm 12cm 19cm
Homemade
fertilizer
Wk 5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8
28cm 36cm 44cm 54cm
Wk1 Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 2
3cm 8cm 12cm 21cm
Wk 5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8
31cm 36cm 45cm 53cm
3
Weight of
Flowering
tomatoes
date
34g, 25th day
38g,
45g
3
4
4
37g, 23rd day
45g,
29g,
45g
3
5
6
36g, 20th day
42g,
47g,
49g
50g
27g
Analysis: This would include showing the
work for % of tomatoes comparatively. In
other words if the nonfertilized tomatoes
produced on average 3 tomatoes and the
homemade fertilizer produced 6, that would
equate to a 100% higher yield, if the miracle
grow produced 4 on average that would be
33% higher yield. You would also include
graphs of all data as well.
Conclusion: I have grown tomato plants for
years and remember my Grandmother
making some sort of a fertilizer from scratch
that helped the plants grow according to her.
Can a homemade fertilizer grow plants as
robust as a store bought fertilizer or none at
all? I believe that a store bought fertilizer
will grow plants better than none at all
because according to MiracleGrow.com it
states that their product will increase the
yield of plants by 30%. Therefore I expect
these plants to produce 30% more fruit. In
further research I found the active
ingredients to be phosphorous, nitrogen and
potassium for plants. These ingredients are
listed on all fertilizers as three numbers
(10:10:10 for instance).
Chemicalmixesforplants.com describes a
recipe for fertilizer that includes coca-cola,
hand detergent, ammonia and water. In
looking at the ingredients on the side of the
labels I noticed that ammonia contains
nitrogen, the soap contains phosphorous and
the coca-cola has potassium in it. If I were
to mix these ingredients properly I could
create a fertilizer that was better suited for
my specific plants needs. Therefore
according to all the previous stated research,
I believe that the homemade fertilizer will
work out the best, followed by store bought
and then the control which has none.
Go to Jung’s and purchase four packages of
better boy tomato seeds at a cost of $1.45 a
pack, one bag of black dirt at $1.89 per 5
pounds, four ‘flats’ of seed banks @ $2.89
per flat, miracle grow fertilizer @$4.65 for 8
oz concentrate. Then go to Super Wal-Mart
and buy a liter of Coke for $1.00, Ammonia
@ $3.89 for 12 oz, dawn dish soap 12 oz for
$2.34. Distribute 50 grams of black dirt into
each of the individual pots on the ‘flat’.
Place three tomato seeds into each pot (thin
to one, once they grow). Water daily with 25
ml of water. After the plants have reached 3
inches tall. Mix the miracle grow according
to directions with 1 liter of water. Take 45
ml of coke, mix with 25 ml of dawn
dishsoap along with 40 ml of ammonia,
combine this with 250 ml of tap water.
Twice a week while watering add an
additional 25ml of fertilizer to each pot.
Record height of plants, date of flowering, #
of tomatoes produced, weight of picked
tomato and any other noticeable
observations (such as brown spots on leaves
or tomatoes).
According to my data the homemade
fertilizer worked the best, followed by the
miracle grow and finally the control. If you
look at graph 1, entitled # of tomatoes
produced you will see that the nonfertilized
tomatoes produced on average 3 tomatoes
and the homemade fertilizer produced 6, that
would equate to a 100% higher yield, if the
miracle grow produced 4 on average that
would be 33% higher yield. According to
www.fertilizer.com, it states that with
increased amounts of nitrogen you will gain
a higher yield in tomatoes. This is
supported by this data as well as the tomato
weight graph. By taking the average
weights of the tomatoes for each, the data
produces on averages the following; 40g for
the control, 42 g for miracle grow and 49g
for the homemade fertilizer. So not only
will you get more tomatoes but the tomatoes
will be on average bigger in size.