Cactus and Mint Comparison
You can do this life science fair project all by yourself! Just ask your parents to buy you the plants!
You will need the following materials:
2 small mint plants
2 small cacti
a watering container
water
Instructions:
Keep one mint plant, and one cactus plant in a cool, slightly shaded area which gets about six hours of sun each day. Make sure that the plants are watered often enough so that the soil around the base of the plant is always relatively moist. We'll call this temperate condition.
Keep the other mint plant, and other cactus plant in a very sunny place, a place that will receive sun all day long, from sunrise to sunset. Water these plants once every twelve days, giving it enough water to be damp around the base of the plant, but make sure neither plant is soaking in water. We'll call this desert condition.
Observe your plants for two months. Create a chart which will measure how much each plant grows, and try to describe the leaves and their colors, or in the case of the cacti, their stems and their colors.
At the end of two months, look at your chart. Which plants are still alive?
Concept Explanation:
In this life science fair project, we try to recreate desert conditions for one set of plants, and more temperate conditions for the other. Cacti need very little water, and once every twelve days can be too much depending on the type, but if you put just a little each time, it should be alright. Remember that the desert condition mint plant should get the same amount of water as the desert condition cacti. The temperate condition cacti should get the same amount of water as the temperate condition mint plant also.
At the end of two months, one cactus will die, and one mint plant will die. The cactus that dies is the one in temperate conditions. It doesn't get enough sunlight in this condition, and having two much water causes it to rot and die. The mint plant that dies is the one in the desert condition. Not having enough water will kill it slowly. Just be watchful when doing this life science fair project because some types of mint do survive in very warm and sunny weather, so your plant may just end up sickly and struggling instead of dead, which will still suit the purposes of the project.
Now that you've seen what has happened to the plants, this life science fair project makes you realize the importance of habitats, and keeping plants and animals in their proper environments. What's more is that we have to protect the different habitats, and make sure that plants and animals have homes that they will be happy in for a very long time.
