2) Read the following scenario and then answer the questions. Suppose a farmer grows tomatoes in a small garden, but he notices that not only are they not producing a lot of tomatoes, but the plants don’t look healthy. Each spring he plants 20 seedlings, and by autumn he has harvested 50 to 60 tomatoes. But last spring, following his neighbor’s advice, he mixed 5 kilograms of fertilizer into the soil. Instead of the usual crop, his 20 plants produced more than 100 tomatoes- what a great yield! He now believes that the fertilizer increased his tomato crop yield. But did it really?

a) List the two initial observations the farmer made that caused him to do the experiment.



b) Can the farmer be certain that the increased yield was due to the addition of fertilizer? Explain.



c) What other factors might have influenced these results? Name two.



The farmer decided to investigate things further. He decided to conduct an experiment. First, he stated that if he uses fertilizer, then his crop would increase again. He decided to divide his crop into two sections; planting 12 seeds of the same seed supply in two sections of the garden. Each section of the garden received the same amount of rainfall, sunlight, pests, and contained similar soil. However, fertilizer was added to one section and not the other. At the end of the season, the farmer collected the following results:

unfertilized plot: 55 tomatoes fertilized plot: 82 tomatoes

d) What was the farmer’s hypothesis?


e) Why was it important that the sections were the same except for the fertilizer?


f) What was the control group?


g) What was the experimental group?


h) What was the manipulated variable here?


i) What type of data did the farmer collect- qualitative or quantitative?



j) Does the data support the farmer’s hypothesis? Explain.



k) What conclusion can be drawn from this experiment?