It's a Colorful World
by Cameron L.
1st Place - Biology

Question/Purpose - Do different colored Iights affect the development of a plant and how quick plants grow?

Research - Different colored lights can affect certain factors of plant growth. For example, the darker the color, the more heat that is radiated from the light bulb; the lighter the color, the less heat that is given off. Another factor that could affect plant growth could be how much light is given. If a light bulb that is giving off light has more watts, then the light bulb will give off more light which could affect the heat factor.

Hypothesis - The plants will grow the quickest and develop the best under a green light.

Experiment - I got pots, put soil in them, planted the seeds in them, and watered the plants. Then I put them on plates and placed them in areas in my room. I left the plants under the colored lights for 10-11 hours overnight. I watched and recorded them growing, and misted the plants every 2-3 days. At the beginning of the fifth week, I began to just water the plants instead of misting them.

Analysis - I watched the plants and recorded how tall they had grown, recorded their status (droopy, healthy, etc.), and how many of the plants there are in the pots under a light. The plants usually grew an average of 1/2 -1 inch every week. In the end, the yellow plants were mostly dead, but there are still some alive, the red, green, and blue plants are all somewhat droopy, and the plants under the white light are healthy.

Discovery - I discovered that each light has their own different and unique effect on the plants' growth. Some made them grow quick and then slow down, some made them grow very tall, and some made them grow for a certain amount of times, and then stop growing. The plants under the blue light grew the quickest, while the plants under the green light developed the best. My hypothesis was half fight and half wrong.