It Just Keeps On Growing
Age Category - Senior
Division - Biological Science
Students - Olivia Bae, Jenny Fulton
Mentor Information - No mentors
Project Summary
Our science fair experiment focused on the question do plants grow better with an electrical current running through them and the soil feeding them? We decided to choose two specific plants; a potato and a marigold plant. The amount of electrical current was also varied for each plant. A 3 volt, 6 volt and 9 volt battery was attached to the pot and wires ran into the soil. We also had a control for each plant. The next detailed question we looked into was which battery voltage made the plants grow best? The plants were watered sparsly every day and after a period of a month, the plants were taken out of the pot and soil. They were then massed and measured in height. We found that the plants with the higher voltage, 9 volts, grew the fastest and the best. Their masses were larger and the potato plant had potatos growing off which also had large masses. The marigold plant had two plants growing out of the soil and these were larger in height compared to the other plants of it's type. This has applications top the real world because farmers may be able to use electricity to have a more productive crop. It is not certain though if the electricity could be potentially harmful to human though when they consume the produce. This could be a large follow up to our experiment.
