WiFi Radiation

Materials:

• Indoor plants, plant lights, water, WiFi hotspot, wireless device with a signal detector
• Supermarkets or plant nurseries (plants); WiFi hotspots are available in many homes and commercial establishments. If the student does not have a wireless device that displays WiFi signal strength, an inexpensive standalone wireless signal detector may be purchased on the Internet. Plant lights may be purchased on the Internet and at garden supply stores.

Procedure:

1. Place several small indoor plants near the WiFi hotspot in your home. The plants should be identical, and all should be healthy.
2. Using the signal detector on your wireless device, locate a spot in your home where the signal vanishes (or is at a minimum). Place an equal number of the same kind of plants in that location.
3. Care for the plants for one month, giving them adequate water and supplying light using plant lights.
4. At the end of the one-month period, evaluate the health of all of the plants.
5. Propose a hypothesis to explain how the plants’ health is (or is not) affected by WiFi radiation.
6. Test your hypothesis by making observations of the health of outdoor plants growing within signal range of the WiFi hotspot.
7. Don’t neglect to consider other factors, such as road pollution, that might affect the health of outdoor plants.
8. Accept or reject your hypothesis based on your findings. If you reject it, propose another along one with further experiments to test it.