Design an experiment to explore how this process would be altered in a weightless environment?

Question

Design an experiment to explore how a plants growth would be altered in a weightless environment.

Write a description of the proposed experiment. The proposal should include the following features:

A description of the plant developmental process to be observed.

Description of the environmental condition being tested .

Hypothesis being tested .

Description of experimental procedures .

Description of all necessary controls .

Implications of research .

Answer 1

Weightless does not mean airless, it means gravity-free. If this is an experiment to be done on earth, since you can't get rid of gravity, you do the next best thing and see how different orientations with respect to the vertical affect growth direction and speed. Start by having plants grow, either from seeds or from seedlings, from soil whose surface is (1) normally oriented, (2) vertical, and (3) upside-down if possible (possibly by packing the soil tightly; if you do that, the others must also be tightly packed).

The hypothesis might be that gravity affects growth direction more than light direction. If so, for each of the soil orientations, have light coming from (1) above, (2) the side, and (3) below.

This is just a start. You may want to add other variables, like how long the lights are on (longer might mean the plants pay more attention to light direction and less to soil orientation). Do use multiple samples as 1st answer suggests, and use gro-lux or similar plant lights. I envision 3 separate boxes, each having one of the lighting conditions and a few plants level, a few vertical and a few upside-down.

Good luck.