Students will be assigned an experimental scenario; they will design a controlled experiment to test their hypothesis. Students will evaluate different experimental layouts and possible experimental o

Students will be assigned an experimental scenario; they will design a controlled experiment to test their hypothesis. Students will evaluate different experimental layouts and possible experimental o
Group 2 Scenario 2 Tyler Hiebner, Justine Miller, Stephanie Harris Scenario 2: As an agricultural scientist you are interested in finding new techniques that can be used to increase crop heath and production. Mycorrhizal fungi have been implemented in a significant number of symbiotic relationships with plants and shown to contribute to the overall health of these organisms. Since there is a close evolutionary relationship between these fungi and their hosts, it’s been suggested these types of fungi might not have the same effects on crop plants, since many of these have been domesticated for food production. Hypothesis: Will Implementing Mycorrhizal fungi in a symbiotic relationship with crop plant increase health and production? Control group: The crop that has no Mycorrhizal fungi to use as a comparison to the crops where Mycorrhizal fungi has been used. Experimental Group: The crops that have levels of Mycorrhizal fungi added. Independent Variable: Mycorrhizal fungi levels in crops. Dependent Variable: health and production of crops Controlled Variables: Time, temperature, fertilizer, water, light. Procedure: The experiment would be set up with several groups of the same type of crop planted with the same seed. Each group would be in the same general location receiving the same water, light, and other care. The control group would be planted with no mycorrhizal fungi to provide a base to compare the other groups to. There would be three other groups of crops with varying levels of mycorrhizal fungi implemented into the crop. One group would be very little amount of fungi, the second group would be a medium amount of fungi, and the last group would be a very high level of fungi. The experiment would take place over a standard growing season which would be 90 days on average. The health and production of the crops would be assessed at the beginning of the week every week for the full growing season. Once the experiment is complete the results could be compared to the hypothesis to see if it is true or false. Possible outcomes -The three groups of crops given mycorrhizal fungi produced better than the control group relating to their level of fungi implemented -One group of the crops with fungi thrived better than the other two groups because they ended up receiving an optimum amount of fungi -The three groups of crops that were implemented with fungi had negative results when compared to the control group due to the fungi implementation. -There was no noticeable difference between the control group or any group where the fungi was implemented.