1/17/14

This weekend's homework is to read "Colorado River Drought Forces a Painful Reckoning for States" and p. 231 and 232 in Botkin and Keller in order to answer #1-5 on p. 232. Additionally, you should complete the Experimental Plan for investigating how salinization affects plant growth. Finally, you will have your check-in on Tuesday, so go over your notes. The extra credit assignment is also due on Tuesday.

Investigating the Effects of Salinization

Using your knowledge of experimental design, you are going to design an experiment pertaining to salt and its effects on plant growth.

Task

1. You and your group will form a hypothesis about how a soil’s salt content can affect the growth and germination of a bean plant.

2. You will design an experiment using only the following materials:

• Bean seeds
• Salt
• Water
• Paper towel/filter paper
• 2 Petri dishes (each split in half)
• Fluorescent lamps
• Beakers

3. The design must include and identify the following:

• A clear hypothesis supported with a logical rationale connected to class content
• Your experimental setup
• Identification of dependent/independent variables, control and experimental groups

4. Individually, you will be producing a write-up of your hypothesis, results, thorough analysis of data, and reflection upon the sources of error in your experiment.