Bubbling Plants Experiment to Quantify Photosynthesis
Students learn a simple technique for quantifying the amount of photosynthesis that occurs in a given period of time, using a common water plant (Elodea). They use this technique to compare the amounts of photosynthesis that occur under conditions of low and high light levels. Before they begin the experiment, however, students must come up with a well-worded hypothesis to be tested. After running the experiment, students pool their data to get a large sample size, determine the measures of central tendency of the class data, and then graph and interpret the results.
Bubbles can be produced by many things, even plants.Copyright http://clubs.arizona.edu/~tricats/Photos.html
Students perform data analysis and reverse engineering to understand how photosynthesis works. Both are important aspects of being an engineer.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain that photosynthesis is a process that plants use to convert light energy into glucose, a source of stored chemical energy for the plant.
- Describe photosynthesis as a set of chemical reactions in which the plant uses carbon dioxide and water to form glucose and oxygen.
- Describe a simple experiment that provides indirect evidence that photosynthesis is occurring.
- Describe the effects of varying light intensity on the amount of photosynthesis that occurs.