What are the best
Conditions for moss to grow in?
5-7843
5th grade
Nativity Catholic School
2024 San Mateo County Office of Education STEM Fair
Abstract
I want to do this project because I love moss and nature. I’m trying to discover the ideal conditions for growing moss.
My hypothesis is that the moss plants will grow the best in the damp and shady areas because when I go to redwood groves there are mosses in all kinds of types and varieties. My variable is where I put the plants in the house.My control/constants are the amount of water, the number of days I observed them, and the type of moss. In each location I selected the moss received different amounts of light and heat. I conducted my experiment by first planting the moss and giving it a fair amount water. I put two moss plants in three different environments: one in full sun, one in shade, and one in total darkness. Over the course of three weeks I watered the plants, observed their growth, took photos. At the end I compared the photos and found that the plants in the shade grew the best
My experiment proved my hypothesis right and that moss grows best in damp and shady areas.
Include the following to create your abstract:
Purpose Statement
I want to do this because I love moss and nature. I’m trying to discover that moss grows best in damp and shady environments. I think it can add to the fact that moss can grow can grow in a lot of places. It might help others because it’s a pretty and resourceful plant. Moss is an amazing plant that could help places with no plants.
Hypothesis
Due to research I would say my hypothesis is that moss would grow best in damp and shaded areas. I say this because I’ve been to a redwood forest and it was popping with moss in the damp and shady areas.
Experimental Procedures and
Materials
Step one. Create a grid where half of the plants are in shade and the other half in the sun
Step two. give half of the plants water and the other plants get no water. Water every three days.
Step three. Wait for a month and get them ready for the science fair.
Experimental Results - Part 1
We had three tests for growing moss: sun,shade,and total darkness.
The moss plants that grew the best were the plants in shade.
Include before and after pictures
11/28/23
Missing Shade Picture
12/2/23
Missing Shade
Experimental Results - Part 1
Shade 12/7/23
Shade 12/17/23
Experimental Results -Part 2
The moss plants that grew the second best were the plants in total darkness.
11/28/23 12/2/23
Experimental Results Part 2
12/17/23 12/17/23
Experimental Results- Part 3
The moss plants that grew the third best were the plants in the sun.
11/28/23 12/2/23
Experimental results part-3
12/17/23 12/17/23
Analysis of Experimental
Results
There are are two plants in the shade,two plants in the sun,and two plants in total darkness.
The two plants in the shade grew the best of all. I think they grew the best because whenever I go to the redwood forests there is all kinds of moss. And when I had to help break apart a fallen tree when I was loading the logs I noticed a ton of different species of moss. The two in the sun didn't grow as much as the moss plants in the shade and the darkness. I noticed the sun evaporated some water and took away from the overall water level. The two plants in total darkness grew the second best out of all the plants because no water was taken away and it wasn’t given to much water. It appears that the availability of water was the most important for the growth of the moss plants. When the moss plants in the sun got water the sun evaporated some of the water and the plants got less water then the other plants. Light without sun appeared to have an impact it wasn’t too big of an impact on the plants.
Conclusions
The experiment proved my hypothesis:that the plants would grow the best in the shade but the moss plants caught a fungus and died a few days after my last photos
And also that some photos are missing.
In the future I would get better photos of the moss plants and maybe less prone to fungus moss plants. I would need to ensure that the moss could live longer.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my mother, my father, and my grandpa for helping me with the whole project. And being there for me the entire time. They helped get the moss, they helped me when I hit dead ends,and stuck by me the whole way through.
Bibliography and
Sources
Al Benner. (2023) Moss An Amazing Plant http://mossacres.com/pages/moss-an-amazing-plant
Melissa petruzello. (2024) Moss:plant http://brittannica.com/plant/moss-plant