Marieke Sillevis Smitt Interview

Q: What have you learned from this project?

A: I learned that B12 is a nice supplement to aid in the growth of plants. It makes them strong and tall, and also that artificial sunlight makes plants weak.

Q: What was your hypothesis?

A: "We put B12 in our plants which made them germinate slower, but grow faster. We originally thought they would both be faster, but that wasn't the case."

Q: What made you laugh?

A: "The time I got hit by a bike, and when we ate our plants."

Q: What plants did you grow?

A: We grew collards, they grew really well.

Q: What made you stop and think?

A: I stopped and thought for a while when their plants grew a massive amount in a short period of time, it was really weird to see, bit nice, since we knew our hypothesis was beginning to become correct.

Q: In the end, are you satisfied with the results, or do you wish you would have done something different?

A: Yeah, I think we're satisfied with our results, we learned something, and I don't think we would have done anything differently

Tate's Experience of his Story of the Seed Project

From his experience with the Story of the Seed project, Tate learned many things. He learned that B12 increases the growth rate his collards, and that xylitol decreases the growth rate. He was surprised with the experience of using Blogger and wasn't happy with it after the the interactive graph he made didn't work after the conversion from Java to HTML. He laughed when he ate the plants at the end of the project because he saw the plants were very weak and wouldn't survive in the outside, so he "put them out of their misery" and ate them. He analyzed his project the most when he was finishing the discussion and reviewing everything he did in his project.

michael malvini

What have you learned?

He learned how to grow plants from a seed and how to take care of them. He also learned that music doesnt affect the growth of a plant.

What surprised or amazed you?

He was surprised how big the plants got because they started from a seed.

What made you laugh?

He said it made him laugh when our plant did not grow for a while

 made you pause and think a little deeper?

When he realized that his plant were growing from the small seed.

What questions do you have about things you observed or experienced in the garden?

He has no questions but he liked the planting part of the experiment.

Scott's seed story

What have you learned?
Scott has learned that the color of light effects a plants growth.


 What surprised or amazed you?
Scott was suprised that the light effected the plant.

What made you laugh?
Scott laughed at how many mistakes his group made.


What made you pause and think a little deeper?
Scott stoped and started to think when it came to the actual expermient.

what questions do you have about things you observed or experienced in the garden? 
How much people use the compost and is it helpful.

Katie Inman's Seed Story

1.What have you learned from this project?
"From this project,  learned that growing plants from a seed is difficult. You need to constantly be watching it so that nothing harms it. It's like your child."

2.What about this project has surprised you?
"I was surprised how our small our plant was compared to everyone else's plant. I am surprised that it survived this long."

3.What about this project made you laugh?
"Eating the plant made me laugh because we basically ate our entire plant because it was so small."

4.What made you pause and think a little deeper?
"When we were trying to figure out what was eating our plant and how to prevent that, it made us really think."

5.What things have you observed about the garden?
"I noticed that there is lots of competition with the surrounding plants."

ESLP link Seth Nolan

http://chickenteam2016.blogspot.com

ESLP link Marco Dal Canto

http://hosegardenbox.blogspot.com/

ESLP Blog Link for Kylee Bourbon

http://themuralblog.blogspot.com

Link to Cell Analogies Presentation for Kylee Bourbon and Katie Inman

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_CUbKXfGyb1YbZ613exed8aujwZYZMXBTDZ7xVgUKZg/edit#slide=id.g19949870fb_0_5

Cell Analogy Presentation Link for Kela Moore and Benjamin Fodor

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ky-ZSt_XtUv6xCrzlPytfCj_lRaOKnYuiM_qpGZls4o/edit?usp=sharing

Link for cell analogy Marco Dal Canto and Seth Nolan

https://docs.google.com/a/sjusd.org/presentation/d/1CkAbfpGE_L41fHzlVCUudNK0xRczklmHA9mkx-nObVg/edit?usp=sharing

Cell-ebration Bonus

Kylee Bourbon

November 23, 2016

Period 1

Cell-ebration Bonus

Now that our plant is very large, we decided to take a couple leaves off, put them under a microscope, and try a little taste. Below are the observations we made:

Appearance:

One leaf is about 7 inches vertical and up to 5 inches horizontal. The color is dark green, like most kale. There are also some holes from where animals have eaten it. Our plant is much larger than expected, and it is towering over most of the other plants. Here is a picture of what a few of our leaves look like.

Taste:

The taste of our kale is very bitter, like most kale is. The texture is smooth, and it leaves a dry feeling in your mouth, probably because we are so used to having it with some dressing. The taste is also very strong. Personally, I don't like the taste of kale by it self, but I do like it in a salad sometimes. Kale is very good for you. It is low calorie, and contains things like vitamins and nutrients that benefit your body. 

Under the microscope:

When we put our leaf under the microscope, we immediately saw cells. We knew they were cells by the shape and green color, indicating the chlorophyll.  The pictures below show all of the different cells we were able to see under the microscope. The first picture is under 40x. The second is under 100x. We were not able to get a clear picture for anything higher than 100x, because it was so hard to focus.

40x:

100x:

Blog Post #4-Seth Nolan

1.The abiotic factors are plant survives on are sunlight,rain and nutrients from the soil. The biotic factors are the weeds the constrict the plant and also takes the plants water and nutrients. Snails also kill plant and stop them from growing.

2. I think are plant is a lot of competition. The weeds growing around are plant are growing bigger and stronger. The weeds are constricting the plant and it might die off if we don't cut the weed.

3. The winners in the garden is who get the most sun light or water and the losers are the ones who get the least water and sun light

4.Our plant interacts with the environment by having worms and chickens turn the soil into nutrients which makes the plants better in the growing process. This is a big process in the plants life and it will help it  grow bigger and healthier.

5. There are many clues pointing to the garden having secondary succession. There are many small organisms living in the soil and when a plant dies they decompose the plant into the soil making new nutrients. 

Blog post #4- Marco Dal Canto

1.  Some abiotic factors on which our plant survives on are the amount of sun light, the amount of rain and the amount of nutrition the plant is getting.  Some biotic factors are the weeds around it taking water and nutrition from the plant and animals such as calipers or bugs eating the leafs.

2.   Our plants are in competition because the are growing next to lots of weeds.  The weeds take water and nutrition from the plant and cause it to not grow as fast, big, and healthy.

3.  Winners are detoured by the one that gets the most sun light, the most water, and the one that gets the most nutrition from the soil.  The loser is the one that gets less sun light, water, and nutrition.  It is hard to tell who won because they could both be strong and even if one got more sunlight. 

4.  Our plant interacts with animas such as caterpillars. The caterpillars that eat the plant get enough food to turn into a butterfly and it helps them grow up better.  The plant can be affected because it gets holes in then leafs.

5.  Secondary succession is shown in the planter beds.  In the previous years San Jose has been in a drought so it has negativity affected many plants.  Now that we have been getting more rain it is helping plants thrive in the garden.

Blog post #3-Seth Nolan

1.Are plant has grown a great amount and has spread its leaves. The plant has good soil around it and its helping it grow. The stem of are plant has grown stronger then it used to be.

2.Are plant plays a role in the water cycle by absorbing water from the soil and it also uses photosynthesis to grow. The life around are plant probably helped the growth of are plant.

3.Are plant plays a huge role in the carbon cycle everyday. the plan takes the carbon from the air and mixes it up with water and energy from the sun. This process creates sugar and oxygen molecules.

4.Are plants play a huge role in the nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen in the air creates amino acids which is the base of protein. plants take nitrates out of the soil and make chlorophyll. This is what give the plant green leaves. 

Blog post assigment #3

1.Are plant has grown a great amount and has spread its leaves. The plant has good soil around it and its helping it grow. The stem of are plant has grown stronger then it used to be.

2.Are plant plays a role in the water cycle by absorbing water from the soil and it also uses photosynthesis to grow. The life around are plant probably helped the growth of are plant.

3.Are plant plays a huge role in the carbon cycle everyday. the plan takes the carbon from the air and mixes it up with water and energy from the sun. This process creates sugar and oxygen molecules.

4.Are plants play a huge role in the nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen in the air creates amino acids which is the base of protein. plants take nitrates out of the soil and make chlorophyll. This is what give the plant green leaves. 

Blog post #3-Marco Dal Canto

1.  Our plants have grown a lot.  They are much taller and have a big base.  They also have big green leaves.  They have gotten a lot more stable then when we were growing them in the cup.  They look supper health.

2.  Our plants have to do with the water cycle because the plant absorbs the water from the ground.  When we get rain we should see some growth in the plants.

3.Our plants are a major part of the carbon cycle.  They take carbon from the air and combines it with sun light and water.  This is called  photosynthesis .  This creates surges and oxygen.  Our plant is helping us live.

4. Our plants are part of the nitrogen cycle because with the nitrogen from the air it creates  amino  acids and the acids are the base of  protein.  It also uses the nitrogen to make the calorific which make the plant green.

Blog Post Assignment #3- Kylee Bourbon

1. Throughout this week, I have noticed that our plants have gotten much bigger.  Our plants have large green leaves that don't have straight edges. Overall, our plants look much healthier then they did the previous week.

2. Our plants play a role in the water cycle because they absorb water to help them grow and use it in a process called photosynthesis. Water from rain and other sources has probably helped the notiecable growth in our plant.

3.Plants play a key role in the carbon cycle. They take carbon out of the atmosphere and combine it with water and energy from the sun in the process of photosynthesis to create sugars and oxygen molecules. Because of the carbon cycle, our plants have been able to grow more because of the ways our plants use the carbon.

4. Nitrogen also plays a very important role in the growth of our plants. Nitrogen is a major component of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. Without nitrogen, our plants probably wouldn't be alive right now. Also, our plants take nitrates out of the soil and use them to make chlorophyll, which is why the color of our plant leaves are green.

Ben Fodor Blog Post #4

1. Some abiotic factors include the amount of rainfall, amount of sunlight, and the amount of nitrogen and carbon in the soil. Some biotic factors are competition between other plants and animals that can eat the plant.

2. I know our plants are engaged in competition with other plants and weeds because they are growing taller and stronger to be taller than the other plants around it. The plants are competing to be the tallest so they can get most of the sunlight instead of the other plants around them.

3. Right now, both our plants and the weeds are currently the winners because they are both thriving and both are very healthy. It isn't always clear who the winners and losers are because both plants are thriving in different areas. Our plants are successfully living with the weeds in the area, but the weeds cover a greater area and could possibly move into the area where our plants are.

4. Our plants interact with the environment by having worms and chickens turn the soil near them to bring new nutrients the plants need closer and easier to get. The turning of soil may not seem like much, but it can help out the plant a lot by providing new nutrients for the plants.

5. There is some evidence that secondary succession is taking place in the garden. There are small organism living in the soil and as plants die, they get decomposed into the soil, providing nutrients for the plants that are still alive.

Blog Post Assignment #4 -Kylee Bourbon

1. Some examples of abiotic factors that affect our plant are things like how much sunlight it is getting, how much rain there is, and how many nutrients are in the soil. Some examples of biotic factors are things like animals who eat our plants and other competition.

2. Our plants are in competition because they are surrounded by many other plants. The competition is any other plant in close proximity. The plants are competing for water and nutrients in the soil.

3. Winners are defined as winners because they are the ones who receive more water and nutrients. Its not always clear as to who wins, because two plants in competition could receive almost the same amount of water and nutrients. One may see very similar growth between two plants, making it much harder to determine which plant is the "winner" and which one is a "loser".

4. Our plants are also involved in interaction with other animals. Animals who eat our plants are greatly affecting their growth, and the animals growth is affected too because they are the ones consuming our plants.

5. Secondary succession is shown in the garden. Last year, because of the severe drought, lots of plants didn't survive. But now, many plants are thriving out in the garden. This shows secondary succession because there is now lots of life where there wasn't last year because of the drought.

Ben Fodor Blog Post Assignment #3

1. Our plants look very healthy and now have larger leaves near the top. The plants are still growing taller and larger each day.

2. Our plants participate in the movement of water by collecting water around them with their roots and using the water to keep them healthy and help them photosynthesize. The plant's role in the water cycle can change the plant because different amounts of water can affect the plant's growth.

3. The plants participate in the movement of carbon by decomposing back into the ground and releasing carbon and other natural minerals into the soil for other plants to use. The plant's role in the carbon cycle relate to the changes because the amount of carbon it can absorb can change how strong and effectively the plant can grow.

4. The plants participate in the nitrogen cycle by absorbing nitrates from the ground and release nitrogen back into the atmosphere. The plant's role in the nitrogen cycle affects the plant because nitrogen is essential for the plant to photosynthesize, so the more nitrogen the plant gets, the more sunlight it can turn into energy.

Student Blog Post Assignment #4: An Ecological Analysis of the Garden and your Plants by Kela Moore

Kela Moore Period 1

Student Blog Post Assignment #4: An Ecological Analysis of the Garden and your Plants 

1.) Some abiotic factors that affect the plant's survival are the soil that it grows in (mainly the quality of it), the amount of sunlight. Temperature can also affect the plant's growth rate. Temperature can be affected by elevation and also the location of the plant. The amount of water is another abiotic factor, since it is one of, if not the most important thing for a plants growth. Worms and snails are examples of biotic factors, since they are living. They are still very important, as worms churn the soil, and snails might come along and eat the leaves. Believe it or not, snails can actually be a very large problem when it comes to gardening.

2.) I know that our plant is competing, since there are many, many other growing plants right near ours, including "ripgut", common grass, and mallow. These are actually very common weeds, and can take over a garden in a very small area of time. These weeds being present actually means that our plants are not getting "first dibs" on all of the water and nutrients in the soil.

3.) In a way, both our plants and the weeds are winners in this struggle for health. Seeing as both of them are thriving, there is no clear cut loser. In the natural world, most situations see both sides being benefited in one way or another, this is just another example of that. One could argue both sides, saying that our plants are winning, since they're holding out against the weeds, or saying the weeds are winning because of the sheer area they cover.

4.) Our plants interact with the environment (aside from circling carbon, water, and nitrogen through their respective systems) by having worms turn the soil around their roots, always bringing up new nutrients, and the chickens, who also turn the soil. Turning soil, small an action as is, helps tremendously in the growth of these plants.

5.) There is evidence of secondary succession in the garden, seeing as there is soil already present. The primary example would be when tiny organisms  and other plants die off, they decompose in the soil, leading to more nutrients for our plants. It is like a whole ecosystem in our backyards!

Kela Moore Student Blog Post #3

Kela Moore P-1

1.) This week, I have noticed that the plant looks much stronger and more mature than before, with darker, more firm looking leaves. The leaves are also much larger and more abundant than before. Overall, they look healthy, and thriving

2.) Our plants participate in the water cycle by taking in water from the ground, and using it in the process of photosynthesis, while some of the water evaporates from the leaves, in a process called "transpiration". This correlates to the changes we noticed this week because, since the leaves are bigger, more water can evaporate out, and since the root system has likely beefed up along with the plant, it likely takes in much more water.

3.) Our plants participate in the carbon cycle by taking Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere to use in photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process plants use to create energy(sugar) for themselves. After that, when an animal eats the plant, they break down the molecules and expel what's left as Carbon Dioxide. The plants rolls in the carbon cycle shows simply in the fact that the plants have grown. If they hadn't participated in the carbon cycle, then they wouldn't have produced energy, and wouldn't have grown at all.

4.) Our plants participate in the nitrogen cycle by taking nitrates out of the soil, and using them to make chlorophyll, which is what colors their leaves. This is again, very simply shown in the fact that the leaves are green. Had the plants not participated in the nitrogen cycle, they would not have the necessary proteins and amino acids to produce the chlorophyll that makes the plants green.

Lab Report

Marco Dal Canto, Seth Nolan, 

Kylee Bourbon, Ben Fodor, 

Kela Moore Period 1 

 Seed Germination Lab Report 

 Introduction: For our experiment, we decided to test whether regular water or 100% concentrated coconut water made kale grow faster. Our hypothesis was that water would work better because if coconut water did make the plants grow faster, everyone would be using it instead of water.

 Methods: The first thing we had to do was collect our materials. This included 100% concentrated coconut water, water, soil, kale seeds, a ruler, a graduated cylinder, and 4 plastic cups (two for coconut water and two for regular water). To start our experiment, we first poked holes in the bottom of our cups to allow excess water to flow out. Then, we labeled each cup with what the plants would be watered with. We then filled the cups with soil, leaving about six centimeters of space between the soil and the rim of the cup. Then we planted ten kale seeds in each cup, about ⅓ of an inch below the soil. Since we weren’t in class every two days, our watering schedule wasn’t very consistent. We watered it for the first time on September 6th, then again on the 8th, again on the 12th, on the 13th, and finally, on the 15th. After every watering, we would record the measurements of the plants and a brief description.

 Results and Data Analysis: We didn’t start seeing growth until about the 6th day into our project. It also happened to be a Monday when we first noticed growth, meaning that the majority of the growth happened over the weekend. On this day, September 12th, we noticed that the plants watered with coconut water seemed to have a reddish tint and mold was collecting at the surface of the soil, creating a foul odor. The next day, we noticed more of a reddish tint at the roots of plant C2 (coconut 2). On the last day, September 15th, we noticed that none of our kale plants looked very strong, probably due to the lack of sunlight in the classroom. We also noticed that the plants watered with regular water had grown much more than the plants watered with coconut water. Below is a line graph showing our data. We decided to use a line graph because it made more sense considering we had four sets of data. The graph clearly shows that water worked better than coconut water.

Conclusion: Based on our results, we can conclude that water works better than 100% concentrated coconut water when growing kale. In fact, the water showed almost twice as much growth than the coconut water. The coconut water started to grow mold in our cup. Our plants didn’t get enough sunlight and they started to get too long to hold their weight and then ended up falling over. If we were to do this project again, we could have tried using different percent concentrated coconut waters. We would also take our plants home to make sure they are getting the correct amount of sunlight and that they get watered consistently.

  Hi my name is Seth, I live here in San Jose California. My whole life I've never grown a plant at all only watered them. On the other hand both my mom and dad have, but my dad grows plants more then my mom. I've never grown plants but have watched my dad grow all sorts of plants like tomatoes, zucchini, squash, peppers,and even pumpkins. Something I can do well is nurture, I take care of my dads plants by watering  them and making sure they have plenty of water each and every day. Im also very good at taking care of animals in the same way as plants. Hopefully this lab will show me how to grow plants better and show  how it all works, and so one day I can grow my own plants.

Hello everybody, I'm Ben Fodor.

I have very little experience with growing plants because there isn't really any space for a garden at my house and the thought of putting seeds in dirt isn't really entertaining or fun to me. However, growing fresh food would be more motivational because who doesn't enjoy food? I enjoy science and am curious to find out if coconut water actually affects the growth of plants.

Hi, I'm Kela Moore!

I've had some experience growing food before. My parents (especially my mom) have always liked the idea of growing some fresh fruits and veggies. I, however, have never been too fond of working in the sun to mix the dirt around, or of planting the little tomato plants in the soil and watering the every day. I do like being able to walk outside and pick some tomatoes for some fresh bruschetta or delicious BLT's, though. Food is always a good motivator. I love science and it has always been one of my favorite subjects. I hope that we find that coconut water is good for plants! If we do, that means that we can help a lot of people out!

Hi, my name is Marco Dal Canto.  I have been gardening for a long time.  When I was younger, my parents had me garden in our backyard.  With this, I learned how to take care and grow strawberries.  Then we took the strawberries and ate them. They were the best strawberries I had ever had.  Once we grew those I wanted to have my own garden.  Ever since then my family and I have had our own garden in our back yard.  With this project I will be able to learn how to grow plants better.  I hope that the experiment ends up working so then I can learn how to grow plants more efficiently.

My name is Kylee Bourbon. My whole life I have lived in San Jose, California. I have never grown food before, or grown anything for that matter. But I know my dad has. He used to grow a lot of our food a couple of years ago. We had a fairly large garden in our backyard. Even though he stopped, he still knows a lot about how to grow lots of different plants. Though I don't have experience with planting, I do know how to cook. I often cook dinner for my family. My parents taught me how to cook at a very young age. I hope throughout this project, I will learn how to grow my own food successfully so I can cook the food that I grow.

Story of the Seed