“Does microgravity affect the germination rate of cotton seeds?”

Information About the Team School: FishHawk Creek Elementary, Hillsborough County Public SchoolGrade Level: 5 Title: Operation Germination of Cotton Seeds Type of Experiment: Flight Experiment, Mission 7 Co-Principal Investigators: Karinna Crespo, Chandrika Ganduri, and Casey UtslerTeacher Facilitator: Mary VaughnAbstract: Our project is about the germination rate of cotton seeds. We formulated this project, because we were interested in how the germination of cottonseeds in microgravity would affect future space missions and if non-edible plants would germinate in space. Cotton can be made into many things including clothes, food, and medicine. These supplies could be needed by astronauts that go up into space, during missions to the planet Mars.

Question/TimelineDoes microgravity affect the

germination rate of cotton seeds?Timeline

- October 2014: Team members came together as a group, and brainstormed ideas for proposal

- November 2014: Team members edit, revise, and perfect proposal for sendoff

- December 2014: Team members find out that their project has been selected for this year’s SSEP program

- January- May 2015: Team works on, and finishes, Earth-based data collection

Ground Truth DataFor our ground truth data, we did experiments to have more information to back up our hypothesis.

Earth- Based Experiments:• Our team cultivated 5 cotton seeds on felt, to

see how the they would grow• We used a type 3 FME tube with seeds in it,

and did a mini experiment to see how the seeds reacted to their tight environment

Predictions of Space Results

We believe that…1) Geotropism will affect the seeds.

2) The amount of sunlight will most likely affect the seeds’ germination.

Date Seed 1 Seed 2 Seed 3 Seed 4 Seed 5

1/8/15 Seed placed Seed placed Seed placed Seed placed Seed placed

1/9/15 Coat is chipped

No growth Sharp point Sharp point Coat is chipped

1/12/15 Small stub Germinatedslightly

Germinated slightly

Germinated slightly

Roots appear

1/13/15 Significant germination

Significant germination

Significant germination

Covered in white fuzz

Covered in white fuzz

1/14/15 No major change

No major change

No major change

Bronze coating

Spots on bottom

1/15/15 Light green root color

Light green root color

Slight fuzz growth

More fuzz growth

Light green root color

1/16/15 No major change

Shriveled root end

No major change

Thick fuzz coat

More fuzz growth

Ground Truth Data: Experiment 2

Thank You! Special thanks to all our sponsors!

We so appreciate all of their support!

AstronautNicole Stott

Dr. Derrick Oosterhuis