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The Effects of Acid Rain on Radish Plants

Terri Emmerich emmerictm@stclair.k12.il.us

Description: For this investigation students will document the growth of radish plants as they are watered with vinegar and water. The vinegar will simulate acid rain in a controlled setting. After the investigation is completed, students can compare their results with others online.

Grade Levels: 7-12 (Note: This experiment can be simplified or made more challenging depending on the developmental levels of your students. Terri Emmerich works with special education cross-categorical students and she has designed this investigation with them in mind. See Teacher Information.)

Approximate Time Involved:

Teacher Information:

Acid rain is usually discussed in units dealing with ecosystems and environmental biology. When working with students with mild mental impairments, you may need to explain what an acid is and how acid rain is formed and do some investigations involving those concepts. If a student wants to redesign the project using other acids, it is useful to know that precipitation with a pH value less than 5 is considered acid rain.

This should become a team exercise where your student groups might each develop and write a hypothesis, list the materials they would use (planters, potting soil, acid, etc.), the number of each item, and a procedure. An excellent way to assess this activity is to have the teams repeat each other's experiment to see if they achieve the same results. This will also replicate the real world challenges facing a research scientist.

Here is an opportunity for your students, especially those at late high school, to present and defend their results to a professional in the field:

Dr. Elaine AbuSharbain, Science Educator at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, has agreed to review any student designed experiments and their results, conclusions, inferences, and recommendations. Elaine's Email Address is: eabusha@siue.edu

Challenging Your Students to Be Problem Solvers:

Are there different pH levels that radish plants can tolerate? What other types of acids might be used to get similar results? Do other plants react differently to the same pH levels? Design an investigation that will support your hypothesis.

Student Instructions Available to download as a PDF file.

Needed Materials: radish seeds, potting soil, pots (3 for each group), masking tape, markers, water, vinegar, greenhouse or constant light source (i.e. growth light)

Safety Rule: As when working with any chemicals, safety goggles should be used when watering the plants with the acidic solutions.

Procedure:

Student Information: The following information will provide you with the steps for setting up your acid rain project. It is important to hold all of the variables constant except for those that are being manipulated. Constant (or controlled variables) would be such things as: the size of the pot, the amount of time the experiment is conducted, the amount of soil, the number of seeds planted, the amount of liquid each plant is given, etc. Manipulated (or independent) variables would be those things that we change to see if the response will be different, such as: pH level of the water, location of the pots, etc. The responding (or dependent) variable for this experiment will be the number of plants that grow and the quality of their growth in height and leaf production. NOTE: Temperature is one variable that will difficult to control or intentionally manipulate in this experiment. However, from your experiments, you may be able to infer as to whether temperature has any impact on the growth of the plants. NOTE: Be sure to include a control group of plants that are only given water. Also remember that a good scientific experiment is repeated a minimum of three times. Therefore, your data will be more accurate if you set up several pots given the same liquids.

Procedural Steps for Conducting the Investigation

  • 1. Label 3 pots A, B, or C with masking tape and marker.
  • 2. Fill each pot with potting soil.
  • 3. With your finger, make a hole 4 cm deep in the soil.
  • 4. Place 5 seeds in each hole.
  • 5. Carefully cover the seeds with soil.
  • 6. In pots A and B, water the seeds with 50 ml of water.
  • 7. In pot C, water the seeds with 50 ml of vinegar.
  • 8. Place your pots in the indoor growing area designated by your teacher.
  • 9. Check your plants each day. Measure their growth every three days in centimeters. Write this information on your chart.
  • 10. Add 20 ml of water every other day to pots A and B. Add 20 ml of vinegar to pot C every other day.
  • 11. After one week, continue to water only pot A with 20 ml of water every other day. Water pots B and C with 20 ml of vinegar every other day.
  • 12. Continue measuring and recording plant growth every three days.
  • 13. Take the last measurements on the 21st day and then measure the pH of the soil in each of the pots.
  • 14. Create a data table and bar graph to display your results.
  • 15. After group and classroom discussions have occurred, login to enter your data.

Below is a list of questions that can be used to stimulate student discussions. If your students are at a developmental level where you are able to challenge their higher level thinking skills, then only present them with the first set of questions from each group below. Use the second list of questions as a way to stimulate thinking when you students seem unable to expand their knowledge on their own.

Examining Local Results

Discussion Questions that Require More Critical Thinking Skills:

  • What were your conclusions for this experiment?
  • What could your infer based on your conclusions?
  • How would you design this experiment differently the next time?

Discussion Questions that Require Less Critical Thinking Skills

  • Why didn't the plants watered only with vinegar grow well?
  • Compare what the plants in pot B looked like when given only water to what they looked like when you began giving them vinegar.
  • Did changing pot B to a vinegar mixture have any impact on the plants?

Examining Local and Online Results

Discussion Questions That Will Require Critical Thinking Skills to Compare Local Data to the Online Data of Others

  • How did your results compare with the results of others?
  • What conclusions can you make when you compare your results with the results of others?
  • What inferences can you draw from your additional conclusions?
  • What changes would you now make in this experiment based on the information you now have?

General Discussion Questions that May Occur as a Result of Comparing Local Data to the Online Data of Others

  • Where is the geographic location of the schools who have provided online data?
  • How did your results compare with those of others?
  • Did others have the same results with the same acids?

Performance and Multiple Choice Assessment Options

Acid Rain Links

The pH Factor Acid Rain Hotlist from the Miami Museum of Science Includes a list of acid rain lab activities and other activities to explore pH.

USGS Water Science for Schools Gives causes and effects of acid rain with some pictures.

Jake's Attic from Discovery School Includes an experiment that tests acid rain in your community and compares your results nationwide.

Harmful Effects of Acid Rain Lesson This site gives another approach to teaching the effects of acid rain on other substances.

Acid Rain's Effects on Plants and Wildlife An article on the effects of acid rain on plants, wildlife, and humans.

USGS Tracks Acid Rain Has several graphs and shows collection areas where they monitor acid rainfall around the United States.

Acid Rain Webquest If you are looking for any additional activities to challenge older or more advanced students, this webquest puts students in roles of chemist, ecologist, health scientist, or economist to examine the issue from that perspective.

The Effects of Acid Rain in the Forests This site has pictures and discusses in detail what acid rain does to trees.

More links to Schoolyard Habitat Information

Schoolyard Habitat Links Learn more about developing and maintaining schoolyard and backyard habitats by visiting these links.

Copyright, 2005

by Prism Press

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The text of this publication or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the authors.


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