Question

Scientific Method

On a walk down to the beach, you observed that the plants change as you get closer to the sea and finally no plants grow when you get to the beach itself. You also observed that there are salt crystals in the soil close to the beach, but not farther away from it.

1.      Formulate a valid question based on the observations listed above.

2.      State a proper scientific hypothesis based on your observations and the question you asked above.

3.      How are you going to test your hypothesis?

4.      What would be the control in your experiment?

5.      What are the variables in your experiment?

The independent variable:

The dependent variable:

6.      What do you think your conclusion would be?

Answer 1

1. Question - Why is there no vegetation as we go near the sea?

2. Hypothesis- Presence of salt crystals or high salinity does not allow the growth of the plants near the beach.

3. Experiment- Because we believe that it is the salinity of the sol which is the main hurdle for the growth of plants near the beach area. So we can test our hypothesis by planting different seeds of different plants in the sandy soil of the isolated beach area. Sunlight and sandy soil are already available to them. We daily water those planted seeds.

4. Control- in a pot we take the normal soil and sow the same seed we used in the beach area.

5. Independent variable- plant growth

Dependent variable - salinity of the soil

6. Result- after one month we check the growth of all the seeds. We find that the seed grown in the pot containing normal soil is formed into a platelet whereas there s no growth in other seeds sowed in the sandy soil in the beach area.

COnclusion-  the main problem for plant growth in the beach area is the salinity. Ocean water is very salty, and most land plant life is adapted to environments that are not salty.