Help biology short answer hw?

Question

A student wishes to test the hypothesis that plants grow taller if a certain mineral is added to their soil. The student uses two groups of plants, cacti and geraniums. The cacti, since they are desert plants, are given little water and are grown in a hot environment. The geraniums are given more water and grown in a cooler environment. The mineral is added only to the soil in which the geraniums are growing." then next sentence says "Is the student conducting this experiment properly? Explain how you would do it differently.

Answer 1

No the student did not conduct the experiment properly in order to test that the mineral is in fact the experiment. The student would have to have all the same variables, the plant would need to be the same the amount of water would need to be the same and the amount of sun would need to be the same.The only thing that should be diffrnet is the one plant recieving the mineral

for the hypothesis to be the same all the variabals must be the same

Answer 2

no they arent

the plants should be the exact same plants in the exact same circumstances EXCEPT one

if you change more then one variable (or factor in your expeiriment) then the results could come out wrong.

i would make it the same plant and all the same things except have three plants, two you are going to put the same amounts of special soil in, and one not at all, the one without soil acts as your control group which tells you if the fertilizer doesnt really do anything at all,  and then the extra plant is to make validity of your results, so that the first test wasnt a fluke.

good luck!

Answer 3

The student is not conducting the experiment correctly. The student needs to use the same plant under the same conditions and give one the mineral and see if it grows differently than the other.

Answer 4

the specimens should be the same. if he wishes to a cacti then he must have cactus. one specimen should be the control and the other is the variable. he must also have some other factors tested and controlled like the amount of sunlight and water.

Or he could also get both plants but each must have a control to be able to see the factors being tested.

Answer 5

No, the student should use the same type plant in both groups and treat both groups EXACTLY the same way, except for adding the mineral to one group.  The group that receives the mineral, or "variable", is called the experimental group - the group that is treated in the ordinary way is called the control group.