Sydney Rogan Sci.

6 11/14/13 PHOTOSYNTHESIS SUMMATIVE REPORT PROBLEM: How does doubling the amount of carbon dioxide from .5g of bisodium carbonate dissolved in 100mL of water to 1g. dissolved in 100mL of water affect the rate of photosynthesis in elodea? HYPOTHESIS: If carbon dioxide (by doubling baking soda) is increased, then the rate of photosynthesis will increase by 40%. THEORY: Photosynthesis is the process where plants use light energy to produce food and oxygen. It needs carbon dioxide and water to take place and the products are glucose and oxygen. The plants get carbon dioxide and oxygen from the stomata and get water from the earth that is absorbed through the xylem tube. These materials are used to produce glucose and oxygen. The relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature is that carbon dioxide captures the suns heat energy a lot, so when there is more carbon dioxide the temperature rises. Plants need carbon dioxide to live, so doubling the amount is probably good for the plant and the rate of photosynthesis will increase. According to the 2012 data table, after doubling the amount of carbon dioxide there was an average of a 31% increase in the rate of photosynthesis.

PROCEDURE FOR CARBON DIOXIDE (BAKING SODA) 1. Measure and cut at an angle elodea 7 to 9 cm. 2. Remove a few leaves from end of stem and slightly crush end of stem. 3. Measure baking soda in .5 grams and 1 gram in two different test tubes. 4. Put elodea stem side up in a test tube. 5. Fill test tube with water and baking soda solution (1 gram to 100 mL of water). 6. Time both test tubes together at the same time. 7. Put tubes in rack and adjust lamp 5 cm from top of test tubes.

8. Turn on lamps and wait 1 minute. 9. After 1 minute, begin counting small, medium and large bubbles for 3 minutes. Record data. 10. Repeat with trial 2 DATA/OBSERVATIONS:
Trial 1 ___grams Oxygen Produced in 3 minutes with .5 g and 1 g baking soda
Small x 1 CO2 1 gram 30 x 1= 30 Medium x 2 5 x 2= 10 Large x 3 1 x 3=3 Total 43

.5 gram

6 x 1= 6

4 x 2=8

0 x 3= 0

14

Notes: Trial 2 _____grams Oxygen Produced in 3 minutes with .5 g and 1 g baking soda
Small x 1 CO2 1 gram .5 gram 20 x 1= 20 13 x 1=13 Medium x 2 3 x 2= 6 7 x 2= 14 Large x 3 2 x 3=6 0 x 3= 0 Total 32 27

AVERAGES FOR 2 TRIALS

TRIALS 1 2 Total/2 Average .5 g 14 27 20.5 20.5 1g 43 32 37.5 37.5

Notes:

2013 AVERAGE DATA IN 3 MINUTES FROM 5 DIFFERENT CLASSES Baking Soda

.5g CLASS PERIOD AVERAGES 1 2 3 4 6 7 TOTAL/5 AVERAGE 1g % Oxygen Decrease/Increase

108 69 33.7 23.7 26.3 3.8 264.5/6 44.1

139 47 26.5 14.3 36.3 72.8 335.9/6 56

22.3% Increase 31.9% Decrease 21.4% Decrease 39.7% Decrease 27.5% Increase 94.8% Increase 21.3% Increase

2013 Carbon Dioxide Averages

Average of Oxygen in 3 Minutes 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 GROUP PERIOD 6 7TH GRADE 20.5 37.5 26.3 36.3 0.5 g 1g 44.1 56

CONCLUSION: In this lab, we tested if doubling the amount of carbon dioxide (by doubling the baking soda) in water affected the rate of photosynthesis in elodea. I hypothesized that if the amount of carbon dioxide is increased, then the rate of photosynthesis will increase by 40%. In our group, there was an average of 45.3% increase. In the whole period 6 class, there was an average of 27.5% increase and in

the whole 7th grade; there was an average of 21.3% increase. In conclusion, my groups hypothesis was correct and off by 5.3%. ANALYSIS: Inspecting the 2013 carbon dioxide average results, there are some discrepancies in the data. 1st periods data has a really high amount of oxygen bubbles and that group started out with 108 bubbles. Another group, period 7s started out with 3.8 oxygen bubbles and went all the way up to 72.8 bubbles. There is a wide range between all the class periods numbers of bubbles in the data. Also, there are 3 different periods that had a decrease in the number of bubbles when they put in 1g of baking soda in the water. Which means that half of the whole 7th grade had a decrease when the average states that there was a 21.3% increase with 1g of baking soda. All of these inconsistencies in the data make the results seem distort. There are many possible reasons why there are discrepancies in the data. The students probably counted the bubbles that came off the leaf instead of the stem. Also, they couldve miscounted the number of oxygen bubbles they saw. Or some groups may have considered a medium sized bubble to be small or to be large. They couldve said they had a lot of large oxygen bubbles when they were really medium bubbles. That couldve affected the data a lot and probably changed some groups data, making it incorrect. Also, the distance from the lamp and the elodea couldve been changed by accident, making the data inaccurate. All of these things couldve affected the groups data, making it an unreliable test. There are many ways to improve the reliability in this procedure. One thing is that all the groups should double-check the distance of the lamp from the elodea. Another thing is that there should be a model of what a small size, a medium size, and a large size bubble looks like because otherwise people might think that a medium bubble is a small bubble. Also, somebody who knows which bubbles count and which ones dont should watch over each group to make sure they arent counting the wrong bubbles. Finally, each elodea should be prepared the exact same way as other groups so the testing is accurate. All of the ideas above would make the data in this procedure more reliable. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Coolidge-Stolz M.D., Elizabeth, et al. Focus On Life Science. Boston, Mass: Prentice Hall, 2008. Washington State Department of Ecology. American Waterweed- A Common Native Plant. February 24, 2003. November 2013. <http://www.ecy.wa.gov/Programs/wq/plants/native/elodea.html> Young, Paul. The Botany Coloring Book. Cambridge, New York: Harper and Row, 1982.