I am in Biology and we are doing a project.....?

Question

its a HUGE project and a big part of my grade we have to come up with this whole procedure, hypothesis, data, materials thingy and i just dont really know where to go from here.

i am doing it on the affects of sugared water on a cut stem (plant)

Answer 1

Okay. First of all, correct your spelling. You're doing it on Effects of sugared water on a cut plant stem. (or on how sugar Affects a cut stem)

Your hypothesis is what you expect to happen, like: "Hypothesis: The plant stem in the sugar water will grow faster/ stay greener/ rot/ whatever."

Do you know how you're doing it? That's the procedure. Write it as a series of steps, and put explanations in where they're needed. For example:

Step 1. Pour a pint of room-temperature water into a container.

Step 2. Put a teaspoon of sugar into the water and stir.

Step 2. Cut stem slantwise with a knife.

Step 3. Put stem into the water.

Step 4. Check it.

Obviously, you'll have to write the steps as you actually do them, but that's the idea. If you also need to set up a control, such as a plant stem in water without sugar, write steps for that, too.

Writing the steps up should help you figure out the materials you'll need. Just list them, like this:

Materials:

container

water

knife

sugar

stirrer

plant stem

what else?

Data is a record of what happens. Make a little table chart. One column is date & time, one is how the cut stem looks, maybe another column for how the control stem looks. Record the results on a row each time you check it. Start with the initial state, how it looks when you first have it in the water. Check it again after an hour or a day, however you're doing it.

Probably you should also write a conclusion paragraph or two saying whether your hypothesis was correct or not and adding some thoughts on why the sugar affected the stem the way it did.

Answer 2

All parts of a plant need sugar to live because it provides energy. Now when you cut a flower, you usually keep some of the stem with it. The stem and some parts of the flower, in addition to leaves, do absorb the sun's energy and make sucrose,which can then be transported to other areas of the plant.

Adding sugar to the water in which you place the flowers will not have any positive effect on the life of the flower. This is because roots (or in this case the base of the stem) only absorb salts and water, which are then transported to the rest of the plant. They do not absorb sugars.

In your house you have some pipes which transport hot water and others that transport cold water. Pipes in your home are equivalent to "conducting vessels" in a plant. Plants have conducting vessels which transport water and salts, and other vessels which transport sugars. In fact, adding sugar could be detrimental to flowers because it will make it harder for the flowers to absorb water and they will wilt. This effect becomes stronger as you raise the concentration of the sugar in the water.  

Answer 3

Your teacher is asking you to do your project using the scientific method.  The scientific method is a way to ask and answer scientific questions by making observations and doing experiments.

The steps of the scientific method are to:

Ask a Question:  e.g How does sugar affect cut plant stems?

Do Background Research:   Check your textbook, on-line, etc.

Construct a Hypothesis:  e.g. Sugar increases (or decreases) the time before that cut flowers wilt.  

Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment:  e.g. put flowers or plants in plain water and the same ones in sugar water and see which last longer.  You might also do a third comparison with a different amount of sugar in the water.  Be sure the measure both the sugar and the water so you can estimate a percent.

Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion:  i.e. watch to see how the plants react to the different amounts of sugar--none,  5%, 10%, etc. to see which produces the longest lasting plants.

Communicate Your Results:  i.e.  Plants put in 5% sugar water lasted 1 day longer (or shorter) than those in plain water, but one day longer (or shorter) as those in he 10% solution.

It is important for your experiment to be a fair test. A "fair test" occurs when you change only one factor (variable) and keep all other conditions the same.   Therefore, you should use identical containers, identical plants, identical amounts of water, containers must be placed in the same location, etc.