The study of plant growth in microgravity

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Travis Hendershot Josh Denmeade
Microgravity
Testable Question If Brassica Rapa plants are
grown in a microgravity environment, will it
affect the amount of fruit produced, the height
of the stems, the amount of leaves, the angle of
the stem, and the root hairs?
Hypothesis The plants affected by the
independent variable will have a greater amount
of fruit, the plants will be taller, the amount
of leaves will increase, the angle of the stem
will decrease, and increase the amount of root
hairs
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Experiment Number 1
For this experiment Plants grew in a
horizontal system Grown in Film Can
Grown for 6-7 days Dependent Variable(s)
Root Hairs (Amount) Direction of Root
Growth
Microgravity
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Experiment Number 2
For this experiment Plants grew in a
vertical system Plants grew in bottle
growing system Plants grew for 37
days Dependent Variable(s) Height, Angle of
Stem, Amount of fruit, Amount of Leaves
Microgravity
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This graph shows that the height of the plants in
micro-gravity was shorter than that of the
control plants. This means the plants did not
grow as well in micro-gravity.
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This graph shows that the stem angles of the
plants in micro-gravity were less than the
angles of the control plants. This was probably
due to disorientation of the plant
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This graph shows that the amount of leaves of the
plants were relatively the same. This shows
that despite the fact that some of the plants
may have been impaired, they still went through
their life cycle.
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This graph shows that the control was
successfully going through the process of
reproduction while the microgravitys did not.
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Results-1st

• Root hairs
• grew to changing sense of gravity
• Direction of Roots
• grew to changing sense of gravity

Control Microgravity
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Results-2nd

• Height
• didnt grow as well
• Leaves
• able to go through lifecycle
• Angle of Stem
• plants curved to gravity
• Size of fruit
• wasnt able to reproduce as
  well

Control
Microgravity
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Conclusion

• Complete life cycle
• 2nd generation may not
  develop