Biology Pod

2016 STEM Academy Biology Pod Overview
This pod was developed around the common interest of the study of near space effects on various biological matter. This group chose to investigate how near space would affect plant germination as well as bacterial growth.

Germination
Many factors affect germination including moisture, air, light, and temperature. The seeds can be sensitive and some factors need to be fine tuned for the viability of germination. Therefore questions were asked about the viability of germinating seeds that had been exposed to near space.

Initial Germination Experiments
In order to study the effects of near space on germination, the students first obtained three different types of seeds. These included marigolds, yellow wax beans, and radishes. These seeds were selected in an effort to choose plants with a short germination time. This allows for a more hands on study of all seeds and the students would be able to observe the different germination rates within the STEM academy. Germination for the wax beans takes approximately 8 days, the radishes take 4-7 days, and marigolds will germinate within 5-10 days.

After initial research, it was found that pre-soaking the seeds could expedite germination, allowing for the students to see more of the germination process. Therefore, they pre-soaked half of each type of seed, and left the other half dry. The seeds were allowed to soak overnight and were left in the water for 20 hours. Then a series of tests were conducted to analyze whether germination was expedited based on soaking of the seeds, exposure to light, and temperature.

During these tests, the seeds ended up drying out, so no definitive data could be collected from this data set. However, many of the presoaked radishes sprouted within 24 hours. This was much faster than the dry seeds and led students to believe that presoaking the seeds would expedite germination.

Seeds in Near Space
Three sets of seeds were sent to near space. There was the control group; this included seeds that were exposed to normal light and were not soaked prior to the germination trial. Then there were seeds that were in the dark and not soaked prior to the experiment. The final group included seeds that were subjected to the dark as well as were soaked prior to the experiment. These seeds were placed in Ziploc baggies on the outside of the pod. All of these seeds are currently undergoing germination testing, and once complete, the data will be posted.

Control Seeds
This set of seeds were exposed to the regular day light cycle as well as they were not soaked. This group started with five radish seeds, two bean seeds, and five marigold seeds.

Pre-soaked Seeds Without Light
This set of seeds were not exposed to light as well as they were pre-soaked. This group started with two radish seeds, seven bean seeds, and three marigold seeds.

Seeds without Light
This set of seeds were not exposed to the normal light cycle as well as they were not soaked. This group started with five radish seeds, five bean seeds, and five marigold seeds.

Bacteria Growth
Students wanted to investigate what happens when bacteria is exposed to near space. Would it simply stunt the growth of the bacteria or would it halt the growth altogether? After some preliminary research, it was noted that bacteria are not killed simply by freezing the specimens. This is why harmful bacteria on food will not simply disappear during freezing. Therefore it was concluded that the plates might be slightly slowed due to the cold temperature; however, there would still be active colonies on the plates.

Swabbing for Bacteria
The second main focus of the pod was with regards to growth of bacteria. Students wanted to test whether sending bacteria samples to space would halt the growth of bacteria. 10 agar plates were obtained and used to grow the bacteria obtained from swabs around the school. Five locations were selected and two swabs from each location were used to start the growth in two distinct plates. This allowed for a plate to be kept on the ground and a plate to go to near space for every selected location. All of the space plates were placed on the inside of the pod, expect for the outside door handle plate. This plate was secured to the outside of the pod.

Bacteria Results
One of the main notes is that something happened to the augur that went to space. It experienced some sort of changed and caused issues within the colony growth. The difference in augur is very apparent in the photos; however, it is not present in every plate that went to space. After initial analysis, it seems as if the colonies that were exposed to near space were slightly slowed and were not as developed as the control bacteria. It is difficult to say this for sure due to the changes in augur. This change hindered the analysis and is being investigated in an attempt to understand the change.