You decide to start your own vegetable garden to grow to produce for you and your family.
Question:
You decide to start your own vegetable garden to grow to produce for you and your family. What better way to be self-sustaining. One item you wanted to grow was sweetcorn. After doing some initial research, you learned that where you live, the soil type may not have the right nutrients to best grow sweet corn. Much of the research suggested using fertilizer to help provide the proper nutrients. You decided to try for an all-natural garden, anyway. When harvest time came, your corn was not mature. The plant was small and produced little crop. Experimental Design and Result: When it was time to plant again the next year, you set up two areas of sweetcorn.
One area was planted similar to last year, with no added fertilizers. Another section was planted with the use of fertilizers, all the other conditions between the two sections of sweetcorn were the same. The results indicated that the average plant height of the fertilized section was over 6 feet, whereas the unfertilized corn plants were 4 ft tall. In addition, the ears of corn were not matured in the unfertilized section, compared to the fertilized section.
State all the steps of the scientific method, as they were followed in this example. Observation: Question: Hypothesis: Prediction: Test: Results:
Please indicate the conclusion you would draw: Let’s look at this scenario in more detail: What was the control in the test?
If the control was not planted the second year, would you be able to draw any real conclusions about the effectiveness or need for fertilizer? Please explain your answer.