SAMPLE WRITE-UP FOR SCIENCE FAIR

  A.     Question: Does cornmeal gluten inhibit grass growth and/or fertilize the soil?

3. Procedure:
1. I will place equal amounts of soil into two halves of a tray.
2. I will add thirty oat seeds to each side and make sure they are evenly spaced and let the oats grow to two inches high.
3. Next I will disperse grass seed evenly on each side.
4. I will then add the cornmeal gluten to one side.
5. The tray will then be watered and checked daily for germination of any grass seed.
6. Next, I will check the germination rates for the grass seed to see whether the cornmeal gluten inhibited the growth of the grass.
7. After a certain amount of time I will cut the plants down and take the mass of the oats to determine whether the cornmeal gluten helped as a fertilizer.

      D.) Experimental Setup:

              a.)    Independent variable: Cornmeal gluten
              b.)    Dependent variable: grass seed germination and growth of oats
              c.)    Constants: water, light, time, soil
              d.)    Control: The half of the tray without cornmeal gluten.

     E.) Bibliography

        Szerlag, Nancy. Cornmeal gluten herbicide kills sprouting weeds, but is safe around kids. Online. Available  http://www.detnews.com/2001/garden/0107/29/e10-247399.htm 10/20/04

       Turner, Cara. Discovery Changes Herbicides. Online. Available http://www.gluten.iastate.edu/daily.html 10/20/04

       Christians, Nick. Corn-based extracts for weed control. Online. Available

http://www.gcsaa.org/gcm/2001/nov01/11cornbase.html 10/20/04

       Ransom, Viveka. Corn Gluten Meal – Byproduct to Wonder Product. Online. Available http://www.gluten.iastate.edu/pdf/iowahort.pdf

       Non-toxic herbicides. Online. Available http://www.emilycompost.com/nontoxic_herbicides.htm