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Assignment for Round 2 of the Science Cup competition – GARDEN 2024 – category 1st grade of elementary school

Introduction

Dear competitors,

Thank you for many great solutions of the 1st round of the Science Cup - Garden 2024, you designed beautiful, original and elaborate mazes and made a lot of blooming flowers. But we were most pleased with the diverse and very nicely prepared practical part, where you made many interesting observations and measurements with carrots. We did not expect such a whirlwind of ideas. Now the tasks of the second round are waiting for you, where, in addition to investigating germination, we also have water, because we could not do without it in the garden. Just to be on the safe side, we remind you again that:

Solutions must be submitted no later than 23:59 on the last day of the round.

The solution must be uploaded to your category's Google Classroom by the required deadline as a single PDF file of no more than 10 MB in size. All contents of the file (text, sketches, photographs) must not exceed 3 A4 pages and be easily readable (simple font, minimum font size 11). In case you do not meet the deadline, format or scope of the work, your solution will be penalized with a loss of 20 points.

And finally, ONLY a table or bench of approximately 1 x 1.5 m in size and the surrounding area of 10 cm will be available to the team for their presentation of each round of the competition in the finals. No other space will possible to be used.

We look forward to your solutions for the second round.

Your Science Cup 2024 team

1. Creativity (20 %)

Even when the gardens and fields are resting in winter, we can grow herbs or germinate seeds at home or in greenhouses. Your task is to prepare a healthy snack using any herbs, home-grown or bought, or germinated seeds. You may (but do not have to) use watercress that you have grown as part of the Experimentation section. Write us a recipe and take a picture or draw your dish.

2. Experimental part (40 %)

What influences seed sprouting

Because germinating seeds can sometimes be difficult and you might not be able to complete this task in one month, it was assigned in January, but the results should be sent to us now, in the February round of the competition.

Ethylene, one of the airborne plant hormones, affects the ripening of plant fruits, but also the growth of seedlings. And it is its effect that you will observe in this long-term assignment. You will use an apple as a source of ethylene for your experiments, from which ethylene is released into the air as it ripens. You may have heard of the apple being used, for example, when we want a fruit or vegetable to ripen faster. We will explore how the apple affects the sprouting of seeds. And beware, keep your eyes open and don't be surprised if the experiment turns out differently than you expected.

Materials: 2 mason jars, a smaller apple (to fit the whole apple into the jar), 2 yoghurt cups (must be small enough to fit into the jar), cling film, duct tape, scissors, paper or newspaper, water, some soil (approx. 1 yoghurt cup), watercress seeds (or other fast sprouting plants)

Prepare both glasses and the apple. Make a ball from crumpled paper or newspaper similar in size to the apple, moisten it with water and wrap it loosely in foil. Place the apple in the bottom of one of the jars and the ball in the other.
Think about why it is appropriate to put a ball of moistened paper and foil in a jar without an apple when doing this experiment and write down your ideas.
Cut/cut both cups about 2 cm above the bottom to make a bowl. Fill the cups with soil, which you moisten and sow 10-20 watercress seeds (or another plant that germinates quickly) in each cup.
Place one of the cups in each jar (place them on top of the apple/sphere) and cover the necks of the jars with foil and tape them with duct tape. The jars must be tightly sealed.
Place the jars in a window (so that the germinating plants have enough light). Leave them in place for at least 14 days. You can watch the seeds germinate continuously. Do not open the jars during the experiment.
Make a note of how you expect your experiment to turn out. Do you expect the plants in each jar to be different? If so, how?
After 14 days, if the plants have already sprouted (if not, you can wait a few more days or try again with different seeds), take the cups out of the jars and examine the plants carefully. How big are they? How are the plants in the apple jar and the paper ball jar different? Carefully document the differences - both photographically, verbally and numerically. Do your findings differ from your expectations? If so, in what ways?
Try looking up in encyclopaedias or on the internet what effect ethylene has on germinating plants and compare your observations with the information you have found. Describe what you think has happened in each of the jars over the past 14 days.

Credits: Thanks to L. H. Houfková and the Golden Leaf competition for the photo and inspiration. If you are interested in similar challenges, check out https://zlatylist.cz/.

3. Practical part (40 %)

Plants and animals need water to live. All kinds of irrigation systems and materials are used to water gardens, greenhouses and fields and to keep the soil sufficiently moist. Your task is to investigate how much different materials absorb water. Choose as many different materials as you can, for example: paper towels, a dish sponge, drawing chalk, different fruits and vegetables, stone, wood, building blocks...

Suggest a way in which you can measure and compare how much different materials absorb water and describe it to us, including all the tools you will need. Keep in mind that you need to have the same conditions for all materials in order to make reliable comparisons.

Choose at least five different materials for which you will measure how much water they absorb.

Rank them in order of how much you estimate they will absorb water.

Take the measurements.

Record your measurements in a table and describe what you found.

Did your estimate of the ordering of the materials hold true?

Try to explain why it is that how much different materials absorb water varies, and how it came to be that way.

Take pictures or draw how you went about making the measurements.

Did you encounter any difficulties in making the measurements? Did you have to do anything differently than you originally planned?

Document your experiments with photographs and pictures, and write everything down carefully. We suggest you make research diaries, in which you will write and draw everything. You will not send us the diaries, but if you are promoted to the finals, you will take them with you together with the products from the individual rounds.

Remember, however, that in order for us to be able to evaluate all your solutions, what you send us must not exceed three pages!

We are looking forward to your solutions and see you in the next round!

Describe the solution procedure of each task, the results of your team work, and any additional information, and document them with photos.

The solution can be handed in only before the deadline. Only the solutions fulfilling all the requisites given in the propositions will be judged without any point loss.

If you have any questions, you can ask a category consultant in your country, see poharvedy.eu for contacts.

Assignment for Round 2 of the Science Cup competition – GARDEN 2024 – category Assignment for Round 2 of the Science Cup competition - GARDEN 2024 - category 2nd grade of elementary school and 1st to 3rd grade of secondary school

Introductory information

Dear contestants, thank you for the many excellent solutions in the first round of the Science Cup – Garden 2024. You designed very original and elaborate mazes for your gardens, selected interesting fruits, vegetables, and flowers from your gardens to serve as natural pH indicators, and experimented with them in original ways. However, we were most pleased with the diverse and beautifully crafted practical part, in which you made many interesting observations and measurements with various vegetables. We did not expect such a whirlwind of ideas. Now, the tasks for the second round await you, where, in addition to fruit, water also awaits us in the garden, because we could not do without it in the garden. Just a reminder that:

The solutions for each round must be submitted by midnight on the deadline date for that round.

The solutions must be uploaded to the Google Classroom for your category by the deadline, in the form of a single PDF file with a maximum size of 10 MB. All content in the file (text, sketches, photos) must not exceed 3 A4 pages and must be easily legible (simple font, minimum font size 11). If you do not meet the deadline, format, or scope of the work, your solution will be penalized with a loss of 20 points.

For their presentation in the final round of the competition, teams will ONLY have access to a table or bench measuring approximately 1 x 1.5 m and the area around the bench up to a distance of 10 cm from the bench. No other space may be used.

We look forward to your solutions for the second round.
Your Science Cup 2024 team

Creative part (20%)
In the last round, you designed garden or park mazes for us. Today, we will expand our garden with a pond. In addition to the pond containing either painted, made-up, or real water, it should also include a physical or chemical experiment on its surface or in its vicinity that fits into the pond or near it. Again, you are limited by space and should not exceed the dimensions of a 20 x 20 cm square or a circle with a diameter of 20 cm.
Garden ponds are one of the most beautiful features you can add to your garden. In addition to their aesthetic value, they also offer a number of practical benefits. One of the main advantages is that a pond is an ideal environment for many species of plants and animals. Another advantage of a garden pond is its function as a natural water purifier. In addition, it can also be a great place for relaxation and meditation.

Describe what tools you used in the construction and document your activity with photographs. Don't forget to describe the experiment you used to enrich your pond.

2. Experimental part (40%)

Choose one experiment in which you will use fruit "from your or your neighbor's garden" (neighbor's garden = this may be fruit that is not grown in the Czech Republic) as the basic element of a simple physics experiment. In addition to the selected fruit, you can use a maximum of 5 other aids (including liquids and the like) for your experiment. If you use three glasses, you have used 3 aids; if you use water or another substance, for example, you have used one aid.

Fruit is usually defined as the fruit, aggregate fruit, fruit cluster, or seeds of mainly perennial seed plants, most often trees. However, fruit is not a biological term with a precise definition (which also varies in different languages). In agricultural, food, and gastronomic practice, this term is used to refer to sweet, fleshy fruits of fruit trees, shrubs, and forest fruits.

Conduct a physics experiment in which any fruit or part of fruit plays a major role. Write down the necessary equipment and the number of items used, record the procedure, and don't forget to explain the experiment. Supplement the experiment with your own photographs

3. Practical part (40%)

In the practical part, we will combine theory, practice, and observation or measurement.

We will remain in the GARDEN. In the last round, we worked with vegetables; today, we will work with fruit.
This time, you have three related tasks.

For your observation or measurement, choose one type of fruit "from your or your neighbor's garden."

Find out three interesting facts about the fruit you have chosen.
Carry out and describe physical or chemical observations or measurements with the fruit (proof of the presence of a substance, volume, density, determination of the center of gravity, etc.).
Draw the correct conclusions from your observations or measurements.

Record and document the procedure for solving each task, the results of your team's research, and other related information, always using your own photos.

The completed solution can be submitted by the deadline at the latest. Please note that only solutions that meet all the requirements specified in the competition rules will be fully evaluated.

If you have any questions, please contact the consultants for the relevant category.