13 Replies to “Science 9 TALONS Talk”

  1. What’s up Lara! You get the special title of my final required comment for TALONS Talks (Although I did look at many more)! Well done! Your presentation was meticulously crafted and showcased, and overall had a sense of professionalism that is expected.
    Your collecting, organizing, and presenting of information on water uptake, nutrient uptake, and root growth were flawless and clearly explained how temperature directly affects these factors for plant growth. I left your presentation knowing exactly what you wanted to convey without any missing information!
    But although your research was well done, I do have a wish for your PowerPoint Presentation. I personally believe that the format of your slides were quite plain, and didn’t add much to your presentation in terms of engagement. This comes down to the use of font styles and size, the placement of text and images, and the overarching aesthetic of your presentation. I think you could have spent a little more time planning out how you wanted the slides to look, but it did its job of concisely deliver information well without a doubt.
    One question I have for you has to do with the general term of plant growth. Do you think soil, or more specifically soil temperature, is the most important and influential factor to plant growth? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Apologies for a late comment; I don’t think you’re obligated to reply. But I did think of it as a positive, SOIL (so you’ll) have more time to think about my question and answer it!
    Gyu Min (TALONS 9)

  2. Hi Lara! I loved your presentation! It was very informative and well laid out. I especially thought that it was nice and slow as opposed to rushed. One critique would be to use more pictures and visuals, but besides that it was great. You mentioned that different plants have different preferred soil temperatures. Due to this, is keeping non-native plants in a greenhouse a better idea than just planting them in a non-native environment, and if you couldn’t create a greenhouse, will the plant be affected in a big way?

    • Hi Colby! That’s a great question that I’m not completely certain about. However, based on my research, I would say that growing a non-native plant in a greenhouse would end with better results that if you simply placed that plant in an environment that is far different from the one it originated from. There are so many factors that contribute to how well a plant will grow, soil temperature included, and plants will adapt to their surroundings. So by taking a plant out of the area that it’s used to and growing it in a non-native environment outside a greenhouse, it will be affected in any number of ways. That’s why greenhouses are used to match the conditions of a plant’s native environment.
      Hopefully this answers your question. Thanks for listening:)

  3. Hi Lara! I love how you thouroughly explained water uptake, nutrient uptake, and root growth, and then tied it all together by connecting the factors at the end. I didn’t know that there was so much of a connection between your three points, so it was very interesting to learn how interconnected these seemingly different pieces were. I also loved how you included helpful diagrams in most of the slides that further explained what you were discussing. You’ve made it very difficult for me to find a wish for you, but a tiny suggestion that I have would be to include a few more labels in the diagrams that were just pictures (but you only had one without labels so it wasn’t much of an issue). My question for you is: how does water uptake, nutrient uptake, and root growth work for plants like succulents and cacti that grow in drier, more rocky environments?

    • Hey Brianna. Thanks for your feedback. You asked an interesting question that I actually didn’t know the answer to. My project didn’t go as deep as to explore different overall environments since I was mostly focusing on soil temperature as an independent variable. However, I did a small bit of research on this just now to see if I could find anything useful. Here’s what I found:
      In the drier desert environment, water evaporates pretty quickly, meaning it never really sinks past the first few inches of soil. Because of this, root growth for desert plants takes place mostly within those top layers of soil. Root systems tend to grow wide, not deep, thus being able to absorb water from near the surface. This is just a quick explanation, but hopefully it answers your question to some extent. I’ll put some links down below if you happen to want to look into this a bit more.
      Roots of Desert Plants
      How Plants Survive in the Desert
      Nutrient resorption or accumulation of desert plants with contrasting sodium regulation strategies
      Thanks for tuning in!

  4. Great job on your talk! I found it very informative. You had really good images and diagrams that helped further your points.

    It was really difficult to come up with a wish, but as someone else mentioned before, I think it would be helpful to have all the audio in one location.

    I was wondering what lead you to chose temperature as your independent variable?

    – Ruby

    • Hi Ruby! Thanks for your feedback! I chose the temperature of soil as my independent variable because, as I mentioned in another comment, I remembered seeing somewhere that soil temperature was an important factor in plant growth. I was curious at this idea and I wanted to know exactly how it related. I knew that temperature overall was a contributor to plant growth, but I had no idea just HOW much the temperature of soil specifically is doing on its own.
      Thanks for viewing!

  5. Lara your presentation was absolutely amazing! I learned so much and I will definitely consider what you taught me when gardening in the future! I really loved that you explained everything very clearly and it was understandable, even for someone who knows very little about plants 🙂 One constructive criticism I have (and it took me a while to find any criticism) was that maybe it would have been helpful to reference the photos on the slides in your narration. But I though your presentation was very informative and interesting!
    My questions is this: What is the main thing you want the audience to take from this presentation?
    Amazing job Lara!
    -Emma

    • Thank you Emma! I think that one of the main things I want the audience to take away from this is the basic “what”: soil temperature affects plant growth. Very simple. If people can remember this, they can take the next steps to pay attention to what is affecting the temperature of their soil now that they are aware of the ways in which it is affecting the overall plant growth. I hope that this is useful to anyone growing a plant in the future!
      Thanks for watching!

  6. I loved your presentation, Lara! It’s clear to me that you put a lot of time and effort into doing your research! I find it really interesting that soil colour defines the temperature. Now that you explain it, it actually makes a lot of sense, but its definitely something I never considered before! I also loved that you challenged me to consider my plant growth environment in my garden, and I loved how you made your topic relevant to the lives of many people! It was really hard for me to choose something to critique, but if I had to give some constructive criticism, I would recommend putting your audio in a consistent location throughout the presentation, so that it is easier to find each time. Other than that, your TED Talk is amazing! My question to you is: what was the inspiration behind choosing this topic? And what was the most important thing you learned that will change how you take care of your plants?

    • Thanks, Grace! I’m glad that you’ll be able to put some of this information to use! When we started thinking about this project, I knew I might want to explore something to do with plant growth, since although I’ve grown various plants before, I felt I didn’t actually have a good understanding of what was impeding and what was assisting that growth. I remembered seeing somewhere that soil temperature was a significant contributor to plants and their ability to grow well. I wanted to have the chance to explore this topic more and find out exactly how and why we should consider soil temperature when growing plants.
      I think one of the most important pieces of information that I’ll be able to take away from my learning is, like you mentioned in terms of soil colour, some of the things that affect soil temperature. Although this wasn’t the focus of my project, I will be able to put it to use while taking care of my own plants because I understand what affects soil temperature and how that soil temperature is affecting the overall growth of my plant.
      Thanks for watching my presentation!

  7. Hi Lara, I really liked your TED talk! I enjoyed how focused it was and you explained every subtopic very thoroughly! I just have one question though. You mentioned how a decrease in soil temperature equals a decrease in water uptake. However, I was taught that you should water plants near early morning, as it there is cooler temperature, thus lower soil temperature. This seems to be a direct contradiction of your statement, which says that watering plants during increased soil temperature will help increase the photosynthesis rate. So, in short, would it be better to water plants in warmer soil (most likely during midday) or with cooler soil (late afternoon or early morning)? Good job!

    • Hi Jazmine! Thanks for your feedback and questions! You raised a really interesting point about soil temperature and water uptake, because now that you’ve shared what you’ve been taught, that idea also makes sense in my mind. Now, it’s possible that the resources I used were incorrect or misleading, or it could even be a human-error on my part. However, I’ve gone back and looked at all my resources and have found the same information, stating that an increased soil temperature would result in an increase of water uptake. Obviously, I’m not a complete expert on this, but I’ll let you know what I’m thinking based on connections I’m trying to make between what I’ve learned and this statement. One point I can raise is that the best soil temperature often depends on growth stages and plant types. It might be better to water your plants with warmer soil in the beginning for seed germination, but later on you’ll have to make sure that the soil doesn’t get too hot. As well, soil temperature often does not completely reflect the temperature of the air. In fact, each layer of soil will vary in temperature in an unorganized way. Depending on various factors which I won’t begin to list here, the soil could be holding in heat or moisture. In short, what I’m suggesting is that even though the temperature outside may be cooler depending on the time of day, it’s possible that the temperature of the soil will differ. So I think it’s important to monitor, yes, the time of day and the temperature outside, but also the temperature of the actual soil (thermometers work well).
      I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a definite answer, but I hope this helps a bit. I might also continue to look into this specifically because now I’m curious:)
      Thanks for your question!
      Lara

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