How Does Acid Rain Affect Seed Germination? STEM Lab

Background:  One of the problems created by burning fossil fuels is acid rain.  It affects organisms and ecosystems on many different levels.   How does acid rain affect the germination of seeds?

Germination- the process by which a plant begins to grow from a seed

In this lab you will design your own experiment to determine the effects of acid rain on seed germination.  We will allow the seeds to grow until Tuesday and then collect our data, analyze our results, and draw conclusions.


The following materials are provided, you do not need to use them all. 
- Bean seeds (soaked overnight in water)
- Paper towels
- Ziplock sandwich bags
- Rulers
- "Acid Rain"  (water with vinegar (acetic acid) added to it to change the pH values to 6.0, 5.0, and 4.0)
- Non-acidic Rain (tap water)
- Sharpie
- Dropper
- 10 mL Graduated Cylinder
- Scissors

Hints:
* Wrap your seeds up in a paper towel which has been soaked in a solution to simulate being placed in soil with different acidities.  Place this in a Ziplock bag to keep the moisture inside.
*Label everything clearly.
* Seeds need a good deal of moisture

Think about:
* Controlling your variables (seed number, amount of rain,  amount of paper towels, etc.)
* What you will use as a control group?
* Good scientist like multiple trials, so include more than one bean in your Ziplock bag.
* How much "rain" will you use?
* What technique will you use to wrap up your seeds?
* How will you measure your results?  Number of seed germinated, length of root and/or shoot, etc.


Things to write Friday in your composition notebook:
- Lab Title
- Problem
- Hypothesis
- Materials
- Experiment (be SPECIFIC  here; this should be a list of NUMBERED steps explaining what you did.  Someone should be able to replicate your experiment by following the steps.)
- Set up a Data Table that you will complete on Tuesday.