Effects Of Ph Lab Report

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Lab Report

Title: How will the different pH levels found in acid rain effect the development of a bean plant?

Materials:

1. Styrofoam containers each with forty slots.
2. Soil.
3. Beans.
4. Water with pH levels of 2, 4, 7, and 10.


Procedure:

Divided into four teams of students, all of our groups placed soil into each of the forty

slots in the Styrofoam containers. Then the soil was slightly pressed and a bean was planted into

every one of the forty slots. Altogether, one hundred and sixty beans were planted between the

groups. Each team then used water with a different pH level every week over three weeks to

simulate different environments and documented the percent of germination and rate of growth.

Also taken into consideration was the overall height of the plant, the length and width of the

leaves, and the distance between leaves on the stem.


Observations/Results:

My team was assigned to work with the pH of 4. I paid the most close attention to the

development of those plants. One week after the beans were planted I documented that 23 of the

initial 40 had germinated. Inspection of the other groups showed that the pH of 2 had only 13

which successfully germinated. The pH of 10 had 15. And in our variable closest to neutral, 7,

the largest number of germinations was present, about 29. The results can be viewed in graph A.

This shows that plants watered with a neutral pH may promote a higher rate of germination, and

that acid rain may have an adverse effect.


I also took measurements every week to get an idea of how well the plants were

developing with the pH of 4. Unfortunately, by the third week only 11 of the 23 which

germinated actually grew much larger. The measurements of these plants, from root to tip of

stem, can be seen in graph B. The average height of these 11 plants was around 16cm. The

average heights for all of the gro...