School of Dreams (123)

The School of Dreams team (#123) is from Los Lunas. This year they've submitted a project titled Chili Root Systems.

Proposal
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_proposal1112.php?team_id=123

Chili Root System

Team: 123

School: School of Dreams Academy

Area of Science: Biology Proposal: We plan to model chili plant root growth. Our project is important because it can aid chile growers in their crops. Knowledge of the root system can help in the estimation of space, water, and time needed for growth. We plan to grow chili plants in small water tanks in order to see their roots. We will then digitalize them, illustrate them, and use a formula to model future growth of their root system and growth of roots in seedlings.

Team Members:

Sierra Mason Rebecca Martinez

Sponsoring Teacher: Creighton Edington

Interim Report
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=123

Chili Root Systems

Interim: Team Number: 123

School Name: School of Dreams Academy

Area of Science: Botany

Problem Definition:
Fractal root analysis is a growing field of projects. Several people are conducting this research in order to further their knowledge of plants and their needs in order to grow. Analyzing roots of plants can help farmers and other growers aid their crops for the best success possible. Our group plans to analyze the roots of chilies to create a better growing situation for New Mexican’s crops. There are different ways of calculating fractal dimensions for the root systems that can lead to many different results (Berntson, 1993). The Fractal Properties are Emergence, Co-evolution, Sub-optimal, Requisite Variety, Connectivity, Simple Rules, Iterations, Self-Organizing, Edge of Chaos, and Nested system (Peter Fryer 2004). Data that was collected by Berntson showed that if there were different methods used to prepare the roots before they were digitalized, the data would change. These differences made the values for the fractal dimensions very different (Berntson, 1993). Author (http://polymer.bu.edu/ogaf/) stated “In this experiment you compare the branching patterns that arise when a plant is grown hydroponically (with fertilizer in the water) to the corresponding patterns when the plant is grown without fertilizer in the water ” (Hands On 21, n.d.). In another study “Fractal dimensions from root projections and 2•5-cm planar intersections were correlated well with 3D FD (fractal dimension) across all sampling times (Fig. 3)” (Thomas C. Walk, 2004). “Fractal dimension has been correlated with root topology (Fitter and Stickland, 1992) and root architecture (Nielsen et al., 1997)”(Thomas C. Walk, 2004). environments. Author Peter Fryer “In a fractal system, semi-autonomous agents interact according to certain rules of interaction, evolving to maximize some measure like fitness. The agents are diverse in both form and capability and they adapt by changing their rules and, hence, behavior, as they gain experience” (Peter Fryer, 2004). Our goal of this project is to create a computer problem that will model the roots of chilies. We will grow chilies in clear plastic cups, take pictures of their roots periodically, and scan them into the computer. We will convert them to fractal form and create an algorithm that will predict the growth of chilies root systems.

Problem Solution:
The computer program will take the algorithm that we will create. It will take our roots in fractal form and make models of roots.

Progress to Date:
So far, we have not accomplished much. We have done research on our project. We have found many sources that have valuable information. We have come up with a research plan including our list of procedures, an engineering goal, a list of materials, and the data that we are going to analyze from our project.

Expected Results:
After our analysis and completed program, we hope that this will aid several farmers in the New Mexico area that grow chilies. It will show them the necessary space needed in order to grow.

Team Members:

Sierra Mason Rebecca Martinez

Sponsoring Teacher: Creighton Edington

Interim Comments
Hello friends,

I am Reffat Sharmeen, a graduate student at University of New Mexico. I worked three years in Bangladesh as a software developer. Here at UNM, I have been working two years as a programmer and web designer, also with database support. I got into touch with Supercomputing Challenge activities and Project GUTS last summer 2011 and feel honored to be a UNM cadre mentor now. I am supposed to write a review of your project’s interim report which drove me to explore your ideas and share my ideas too.

Based on your interim report problem definition, I understand that you intend to analyze roots of chilies for better growth in New Mexico. You are very clear about your project goal and implementation. I am putting out some of my ideas that you may find useful for your project acceleration.

The principles of fractal geometry seem appropriate for the description of root systems because the repetitive branching of roots leads to a certain degree of self-symmetry which is a fundamental characteristic of fractal objects. Though several attempts have been made to apply the principles of fractal geometry to the description of root systems, appropriately quantify the fractal dimensions and finding similar qualitative patterns are not yet reliable. Fractal analysis of a real plant root system that maintains its original three-dimensional structure has not been performed to date. Attempts were successful when they were applied to roots extracted from the soil and arranged on a flat surface, or grown in a narrow space next to transparent windows.

If you can analyze chili root system successfully, you may apply it to larger root system for an overall measure of the branching characteristics of them. By comparing these measures, you can directly correlate with the efficiency at which the roots exploit the soil volume and how they respond to external conditions. This is why I believe your research on root analogy is really potential to model the project as whole.

In plant ecology, studies of fractal characterization of root system use different methods to calculate fractal dimension namely pin board technique and tracing of root systems. I guess you prefer to use the latter as the roots are visible through clear plastic. On the other hand, images you are planning to capture need to be modified before analysis. I think you can then answer numerous questions like, why do roots branch? Why are there branches of branches? Is this the most efficient method for a plant to obtain nutrition? As you already know, nutrients must diffuse toward the growing root for root growth, and then what is the similarity between the branching pattern of root systems and the patterns controlled by diffusion processes? Which factors affect the growth of plant roots?

Do you have a mentor for your project? I suggest a chili expert from NMSU. Try contacting Dr. Bosland at this address: hotchile@nmsu.edu What language are you going to program in? Do you need any assistance with this program?

I also suggest that you contact Jonathan Wolfe from the Fractal Foundation to see what ideas he might have as a mentor to your project. His email is "Jonathan Wolfe" 

You have a face to face evaluation in Socorro on March 3rd. Best of luck with that. In the end, I would say, you chose a very interesting botanic topic and your progress rate is also satisfactory. This is now right time to start the computer program with scanned images of your roots and analyze to predict their future growth. I am looking forward to see a concrete summary of your project in April challenge.

=Team Comments=