from a high school teacher
 

To whom it may concern,

I am a high school science teacher. I have a student who really loves working with plants. He is carrying out his own research project and he would like to get some feedback on his work from a professional. Below is what he wrote and I wanted to know if anyone in this forum knows what area of plant biology this project relates to and if anyone knows of some people we could contact.

Thanks
Rich
Commack High School
Commack, New York



Clover Project
I first started my clover project on October 8th with a simple idea. What if someone were to take a four leaf clover, root it, and have the resulting plant produce more four leafed clovers? The following day I found a four leaf clover, and it was the initial start of my project. Since October 8th I have collected seven four leafed clovers, killed all of them, dried and kept two of them between pieces of tape, and successfully restored the root systems to three of them, with their plants still growing. Four leaf clovers have always been a mystery to me, and I’m sure the same is for many others; I want to change that.
My current goal for the project has elaborated on my initial question. If I were to take a four leaf clover, root it, collect its offspring that are 4+ leaved clovers, root them, and continue to do that for several generations, could I be able to make my own variation of clover, which produces a greater percentage of 4+ leaved clovers to three leaved clovers?
The steps that I have taken thus far in the experiment which I named my lab journal after, “The Clover Project” are simple. What I have done is harvest the four leaf clovers already attached to their original plant and root systems, and “revive” them. I have made them appear healthier and have them growing in an environment that is under my control (My bedroom). I have done that with Clovers No. 3, No.5, and No.7. All other numbers between 1 and 7 have died from various causes. Aside from those plants, I have also grown 15 clover plants from seed (12 still growing) isolated three of the 15 as controls, (two of the controls died) and used the other twelve for an Ultraviolet exposure test since UV light is known to alter the growth of plants(One of the UV subjects has died due to possible root-rot). All of the plants are exposed to several hours of lamp-light (2100 lumen CFL 30W bulb), and the UV test subjects are additionally exposed to small amounts of UV light from a UVA/B 13W Reptile bulb.
I plan on continuing this experiment until I get the results that I want. I am aware that University professors in Georgia have mapped the genome for Trifolium Repens (White Clover) and have manipulated clover on a genetic scale in numerous ways, and that a South Korean Inventor, Won-kyung Lee (U.S. Patent 7230166, Foreign References: KR100371928 January, 2003) patented a variation of clover, “Lucky Together” and made it by manipulating clover in tissue culture propagation and by using Ethyl Methane Sulfonate; but I want to be able to make my own variation of clover different from the variations previously made. Not only do I wish to get the results that I want for the sake of science, but I also want my own variation of clover to have a unique ground cover made by myself. As I move further along with my project I will collect more and more data, but I do not know what I will do with that data in the future since I have not yet thought that far ahead… yet.