Inquiry project

Alexa Birckbichler, Michael Breen, Isaiah Wilson

Period 5
Wednesday December 14, 2016

BIO REPORT !1
 Testable question: Do plants grow better in the natural light or under artificial light. To

understand this, one needs to first understand the difference each light provides. First, natural

lighting provides plants with more energy than any artificial light could. The sun gives off what

is called white light different ratios of reds, yellows and blues all combine together to make

up white sunlight (earthsky.org) and most all artificial lights cannot go into that region of red

and blue that sun can. Not only does the type of light effect a plant but also the temperature

outside has a large effect on how well it grows. Corn (what we are growing in this experiment)

is a warm season crop, meaning it grows better in the summer with warm soil and high

temperatures. (sunset.com) It is generally required to have at least eight hours of warm

sunlight everyday. (houzz.com) We grew one of our corn experiments (Corn A) on the

windowsill in the beginning and mid winter season. The other experiment corn (Corn B) was

grown under warm light 24/7. For our independent variable we chose to use two different types

of light; Regular sunlight and artificial light. The dependent variable result we expected to get

was one plant growing faster than the other. To make sure nothing else affect our experiment we

used the same soil, same amount of soil, same water, same amount of water, same seeds being

planted, same number of seeds planted, same number of times the plant was watered within a

day, and same amount of space each plant had to grow. The control group was Corn A, because

sunlight is the general material used to grow a plant. Corn B is the plant in which we were

comparing to Corn A making it the experimental group. Before this experiment was started, we

hypothesized that Corn A would grow faster than Corn B. We chose Corn A because we used our

general knowledge that the sunlight gives off stronger rays to make this educated guess.

BIO REPORT !2
 Materials
Soil
4 Corn seeds
Water
Pot
sunlight
artificial light

Procedures
1. Fill pot with soil
2. Add corn seed to each pot
3. Place one pot under artificial light
4. Place the other pot under sunlight
5. Water each day (equal amount)
6. After 2 weeks measure each plant to see which has grown tallest

BIO REPORT !3
 Results
Trial 1:

Corn A which had a grow length of 1 inch

Corn B which had a grow length of 7 inches

BIO REPORT !4
Trial 2

Corn A after 2 weeks

Corn B after 2 week which had a grow length of 3 Inches

BIO REPORT !5
 After growing 4 plants and two trials with different sunlight we have concluded that in this

experiment that artificial light is better to grow plants with. Corn B in the both trials grew faster

than Corn A. We thought maybe the fact that corn is a summer plant rather than a winter plant

had an effect on it. Since Corn A grew by the windowsill and didn't get as many hours of light

because of the variation in weather day to day. While Corn B maintained a steady flow of

sunlight everyday for the same amount of house. If we were to do this over again we would try to

give each plant the same amount of sunlight each day because that probably has a big effect on

how fast it is growing. Or maybe we would try this experiment in the summer time so Corn A

could have a warmer place to sit. cooler temperatures slow down the growth of

corn(clemson.edu) knowing that if Corn A had a warmer place to grow would it have grown

faster than Corn B? If we had grown a winter plant that thrived in cooler weather would it had

made a difference?

BIO REPORT !6
 if we grew a different type of plant would it have made a difference

if we had grown this in the summer would it have made a difference

the time each pant had sun for- Corn A only had it for about 8-10 hours a day while corn B

had it for 24

http://earthsky.org/human-world/artificial-light-plant-growth

http://www.sunset.com/garden/garden-basics/warm-season-crops

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/5679268/list/summer-crops-how-to-grow-corn

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/rowcrops/corn/guide/environmental_conditions.html

BIO REPORT !7