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 **Background Research**
 * IV- Brand of Fertilizer
 * DV- length of sunflower seeds
 * Thing that could affect my experiment- the amount of sunlight each sunflower receives, the amount of water, the size/type of pot (they should all be the same), the brand and amount of soil each sunflower seed is planted into.


 * In order for a plant to be able to successfully grow and sustain life, it requires oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. These three elements are abundant in nature, which allows plants to be able to grow without the care of humans. Also necessary are phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen, available in packaged fertilizers. Phosphorus is necessary because it is a part of every molecule in cell membranes, and it is present in ATP, the energy for plants! In nature, these elements are usually available when dead organisms decay. Fertilizer functions to provide soil that has a dearth of these three elements with them. A bag of fertilizer will tell you on the front the percentages of each of these three elements are present in that bag of fertilizer. For example, a bag that has 29-3-4 on it indicates that the bad consists of 29 percent nitrogen, 3 percent phosphorus, and 4 percent potassium, respectively. Although these are the main elements available in fertilizers, and are the most important, fertilizers also contain smaller amounts of other elements, such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and sulfur.


 * The dependent variable in my experiment is the length in which each of the sunflowers will grow. Depending on the quality and percentages of each element each bag of granular fertilizer has, the sunflowers will grow at different lengths. I will measure after a certain amount of the sunflowers from the stem to the head of the flower.


 * I suppose the growth of the sunflowers will depend on which elements they rely on most. For example, if sunflowers require a particularly large amount of phosphorus, the brand of fertilizer with the most phosphorus will most likely be the most successful in the growth of the sunflower.


 * Some constants that I need to keep constant are the amount of sunlight each sunflower receives, the amount of water, the size/type of pot (they should all be the same), the brand and amount of soil each sunflower will be planted into. Sunlight needs to be controlled because if one sunflower gets too little or too much sun compared to the other experimental sunflowers, the photosynthetic stage will differ, affecting the amount of ATP that sunflower will produce. All sunflowers need to obtain the same amount of water because if one gets too much or too little it/ they may die, ruining the experiment. Having different types of pots will affect the amount of soil each will receive, and you want that to remain constant. We want the soil to be the same type because different brands will no doubt have different amounts of nutrients in them, which may also cause different lengths of sunflowers, and we want the fertilizers to be solely responsible for that.

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