Matt Miller Biography

My name is Matt Miller, and I have lived in San Jose, California my whole life. I don’t have a whole lot of experience in the garden. When I was younger, my mom and I always used to try to grow tomatoes, but the squirrels would always eat them, so that was never success. My grandmother and grandfather have a lot of experience growing food. When they lived in Los Angeles up to a few years ago, they had a huge garden, where the grew all sorts of food: lettuce, tomatoes, a pumpkin, you name it. But since they moved up here, their garden hasn’t been close to what size it was, but its still big enough to grow some tomatoes and lettuce. It seems like every week they bring over a couple of huge tomatoes or other food they grew. My mother uses this as her inspiration to use part of our backyard for a big garden. But our whole family is busy with school, work, sports, other activities, that every year, we never get to it. But, when I grow up and have my own house, I want to try to successfully grow a garden. Well, that’s about it. I hope you enjoyed reading about Marie, Teo, Elysa, and myself!

Elysa Dombro Biography

      My name is Elysa Dombro, and I have lived in San Jose, California all of my life. I have gardened food before, and usually do every year. At my house, we have a small garden where we grow a variety of plants, such as tomatoes, green beans, eggplant, various kinds of lettuce, cucumbers, and artichokes, to name a few. Our garden is very successful, and to this day my family is still using vegetables from our garden in meals. Although I'm not the main gardener in the family, I do help out, especially in summer when we are growing the most. Sometimes when my dad comes home from work, we go out and pick tomatoes and cucumbers. It's fun to snap off the stems and avoid the prickly parts. I also love going to the nursery at the start of the season to buy plants and seeds. It's like deciding what you're going to be eating all year. And it really is all year; recently, my mother has begun making pickles from our cucumbers, and the kitchen has smelled like vinegar since. I love helping out in the garden, but the real gardeners are my mom and dad. My mom knows a ton about plants because of what her father taught her. I think she's the one who started our garden in the first place. She's the kind of mom who, for her birthday, is thrilled to receive a fancy composter. I always look up to her Eco-friendly decisions. My dad is the one who's taken over the garden. He makes sure the plants are watered and are picked at the right time. I love helping out with him in the garden, and I'm super excited to do more gardening.

Marie Coates Biography

     My name is Marie Coates and I have lived in San Jose, CA my current entire lifespan. I have attempted gardening in my preteens, but I failed miserably every time. I have attempted growing a sunflower a few months ago just for the heck of it and now it is growing in my backyard. Actually, nevermind, I can’t find it. My mom probably moved it somewhere… I have quite a few family members that know how to make food from scratch, farm, and garden. They generally consist of my family members in Virginia, the Philippines, my parents, and my grandma. My family members in Virginia (and in the other various east coast states) and in the Philippines know quite a bit about farming, gardening, and making food from scratch. My parents and grandma know how to garden, but my dad has his dream on getting a ranch and farming, so I am pretty sure he has studied up on that subject. Another person I knew was my science teacher from 8th grade, Doc Chock (the man in the top right picture), who had a PhD in marine botany and a BA in Botany. He was one of the coolest teachers I ever had. He definitely knew tons about horticulture, gardening, and plants. Anyway, that’s me in a gardening perspective nutshell.

Teo Martinez Biography

     My name is Teo Martinez and I have lived in San Jose my whole life. I have some experience with gardening, for I volunteered at a summer camp to garden and work at farms. My grandfather, who I live with, has a garden in our backyard, and many of our fruits and vegetables come from our own garden. We grow many things like tomatoes, green beans and squash. We didn’t always have a garden, and we’d often go to the farmer’s market to get our foods. I don’t often participate in the actual gardening, sadly, but occasionally I help out in the garden. My grandfather, however, does most of the garden work, and has plenty of knowledge of the foods we grow.

The Effects of Carbon Dioxide on Collard Seeds Lab Report

Introduction:

We knew that plants intake carbon dioxide, which got us wondering. Would an increased amount of carbon dioxide affect the plants (collards) at all? So we chose to test that as our experiment. We decided the easiest way to give more carbon dioxide was through dry ice. So, Teo voluntarily went out to Smart and Final and got dry ice. Our experimental group was the group exposed to CO2 and our control group was exposed to the air of the classroom.

Our source of Co2, dry ice.

Purpose:
The purpose of our experiment was to test the effects of increased carbon dioxide on collards growth in number of sprouts using dry ice.
Hypothesis:
If the number of collards grown is affected by increased levels of carbon dioxide, then the collards grown in increased carbon dioxide will have more sprouts, because the extra carbon dioxide will provide a fast and efficient way for plants to get the carbon dioxide they need, and change it into oxygen, causing faster growth.

Methods:

Materials:

1st Trial- 2 paper towels

              2 giant Ziploc bags

              2 small Ziploc bags

              2 plastic goldfish bowls

              10 control group seeds

              10 experimental group seeds

              1 styrofoam cup

              approx. 52 grams of dry ice

              water

2nd Trial- 2 72-cell trays

               soil

               2 giant Ziploc bags                                                              

               72 control seeds

               72 experimental seeds

               3 styrofoam cups

               157 grams of dry ice

               water

Procedure:

1st Trial-

1. Place 10 seeds each in a wet paper towel (about 5 mLs of water).

2.  Place each paper towel in a small ziploc bag.

3.  Place each small bag into a plastic fishbowl, and finally into a large plastic bag.

4. Repeat

5. Chip off approximately 52 grams of dry ice from a larger block ( we used a ten pound block) and place quickly in a styrofoam cup.

6. Place the dry ice in one of the bags.

7. Seal both of the bags.

8. Check the seed status after four days.  

                                                                           

2nd Trial-

1. Take two 72-cell planter trays and fill them with soil.

2. Fill each division with one seed, and water thoroughly.

3. Place each tray inside a large ziploc bag, such as the ones used in the previous trial.

4. Chip off approximately 157 grams of dry ice ( we used a 5-pound block) and place it in a styrofoam cup.

5. Place the cup in one of the bags ( the experimental group) and seal both bags.

6. Check after four days.

Results and Data Analysis:

Number of Sprouts Data Table

	8/29/14	9/2/14	9/4/14	9/8/14	9/11/14
1st experiment Experimental Co2 Group	0 sprouts (plant seeds)	0 sprouts	3 sprouts (exposed to air since 9/2)	- (dead sprouts)	-
1st experiment Control Group	0 sprouts (plant seeds)	5/10 sprouts	8 sprouts	- (dead sprouts)	-
2nd experiment Experimental Co2 Group	-	-	0 sprouts (plant seeds)	0/72 sprouts	11/72 sprouts (exposed to air since 9/8)
2nd experiment Control Group	-	-	0 sprouts (plant seeds)	56/72 sprouts	59/72 sprouts

This data table shows the exact days data was collected and the number of sprouts each day, for each experiment.

Seed Sprouts Graphs

In our preliminary experiment, we used approx. 52 grams of dry ice. Out of the 10 seeds in the bags, no seeds sprouted in the experimental group and only half sprouted in the regular oxygen group. In our actual experiment, with 72 seeds in each group, no seeds sprouted in the experimental group, and 56 seeds sprouted in the regular oxygen group. These bar graphs correctly represent the results, as it compares the info quickly and easily since there are only two variables. We believe that oxygen is necessary for the plants to grow because it is necessary for all living beings in order to carry necessary metabolic activity (a chemical process which helps living things grow, produce energy, etc).

Conclusions:

Our results showed that, countering our hypothesis, increased CO2 did not help plant growth, it instead stunted growth. With each experiment, the plants with only CO2 did not grow at all, until days later when they had been exposed to open air and oxygen. After doing further research on the subject, we found out that even though there is logic to our idea of increased CO2 as increased “plant food”, too much of a good thing isn’t always good. It is possible to increase plant growth using CO2, but is a delicate process that requires controlled amounts of carbon dioxide. One of the things that affected our collards was the heat of CO2 taking away from the water in the soil, as well as the nutrients. CO2 isn’t the only thing plants need, and isolating that factor decreased levels of other factors that go into plant growth. Further research also shows that too high of a C02 concentration can cause a reduction in photosynthesis.in some plants, as well as even decrease the nutritional value. Future experiments on CO2 and plant growth could show even more data. If we were to do another experiment, we would start with having plants with leaves already, as opposed to seeds, so that the leaves themselves could take in the carbon dioxide. Also, the CO2 would be in a more controlled amount and less, with more airflow instead of a closed off space.

The Effects of Carbon Dioxide on Collard Seeds Lab Report

Introduction:

We knew that plants intake carbon dioxide, which got us wondering. Would an increased amount of carbon dioxide affect the plants (collards) at all? So we chose to test that as our experiment. We decided the easiest way to give more carbon dioxide was through dry ice. So, Teo voluntarily went out to Smart and Final and got dry ice. Our experimental group was the group exposed to CO2 and our control group was exposed to the air of the classroom.

Our source of Co2, dry ice.

Purpose:
The purpose of our experiment was to test the effects of increased carbon dioxide on collards growth in number of sprouts using dry ice.
Hypothesis:
If the number of collards grown is affected by increased levels of carbon dioxide, then the collards grown in increased carbon dioxide will have more sprouts, because the extra carbon dioxide will provide a fast and efficient way for plants to get the carbon dioxide they need, and change it into oxygen, causing faster growth.

Methods:

Materials:

1st Trial- 2 paper towels

              2 giant Ziploc bags

              2 small Ziploc bags

              2 plastic goldfish bowls

              10 control group seeds

              10 experimental group seeds

              1 styrofoam cup

              approx. 52 grams of dry ice

              water

2nd Trial- 2 72-cell trays

               soil

               2 giant Ziploc bags                                                              

               72 control seeds

               72 experimental seeds

               3 styrofoam cups

               157 grams of dry ice

               water

Procedure:

1st Trial-

1. Place 10 seeds each in a wet paper towel (about 5 mLs of water).

2.  Place each paper towel in a small ziploc bag.

3.  Place each small bag into a plastic fishbowl, and finally into a large plastic bag.

4. Repeat

5. Chip off approximately 52 grams of dry ice from a larger block ( we used a ten pound block) and place quickly in a styrofoam cup.

6. Place the dry ice in one of the bags.

7. Seal both of the bags.

8. Check the seed status after four days.  

                                                                           

2nd Trial-

1. Take two 72-cell planter trays and fill them with soil.

2. Fill each division with one seed, and water thoroughly.

3. Place each tray inside a large ziploc bag, such as the ones used in the previous trial.

4. Chip off approximately 157 grams of dry ice ( we used a 5-pound block) and place it in a styrofoam cup.

5. Place the cup in one of the bags ( the experimental group) and seal both bags.

6. Check after four days.

Results and Data Analysis:

Number of Sprouts Data Table

	8/29/14	9/2/14	9/4/14	9/8/14	9/11/14
1st experiment Experimental Co2 Group	0 sprouts (plant seeds)	0 sprouts	3 sprouts (exposed to air since 9/2)	- (dead sprouts)	-
1st experiment Control Group	0 sprouts (plant seeds)	5/10 sprouts	8 sprouts	- (dead sprouts)	-
2nd experiment Experimental Co2 Group	-	-	0 sprouts (plant seeds)	0/72 sprouts	11/72 sprouts (exposed to air since 9/8)
2nd experiment Control Group	-	-	0 sprouts (plant seeds)	56/72 sprouts	59/72 sprouts

This data table shows the exact days data was collected and the number of sprouts each day, for each experiment.

Seed Sprouts Graphs

In our preliminary experiment, we used approx. 52 grams of dry ice. Out of the 10 seeds in the bags, no seeds sprouted in the experimental group and only half sprouted in the regular oxygen group. In our actual experiment, with 72 seeds in each group, no seeds sprouted in the experimental group, and 56 seeds sprouted in the regular oxygen group. These bar graphs correctly represent the results, as it compares the info quickly and easily since there are only two variables. We believe that oxygen is necessary for the plants to grow because it is necessary for all living beings in order to carry necessary metabolic activity (a chemical process which helps living things grow, produce energy, etc).

Conclusions:

Our results showed that, countering our hypothesis, increased CO2 did not help plant growth, it instead stunted growth. With each experiment, the plants with only CO2 did not grow at all, until days later when they had been exposed to open air and oxygen. After doing further research on the subject, we found out that even though there is logic to our idea of increased CO2 as increased “plant food”, too much of a good thing isn’t always good. It is possible to increase plant growth using CO2, but is a delicate process that requires controlled amounts of carbon dioxide. One of the things that affected our collards was the heat of CO2 taking away from the water in the soil, as well as the nutrients. CO2 isn’t the only thing plants need, and isolating that factor decreased levels of other factors that go into plant growth. Further research also shows that too high of a C02 concentration can cause a reduction in photosynthesis.in some plants, as well as even decrease the nutritional value. Future experiments on CO2 and plant growth could show even more data. If we were to do another experiment, we would start with having plants with leaves already, as opposed to seeds, so that the leaves themselves could take in the carbon dioxide. Also, the CO2 would be in a more controlled amount and less, with more airflow instead of a closed off space.