Edgar’s Photosynthesis!

By Rachel Wege and Anna Gorski

PHEOCS Investigation

What happens during photosynthesis?

That was the question we asked. So to

start we surfed the web to figure out the

basics about photosynthesis. But

websites could only hold so much

information, so we designed our own

experiment.

PHEOCS Background Information

PHEOCS Background Information

Our Questions… What is glucose and how is it made? Glucose is a sugar, and is made by the chemical reaction in the plant's cell. When sunlight hits an organism that can perform photosynthesis one of three things can happen. Light could be reflected absorbed or too much can be absorbed and can give the plant a “sunburn” so to speak. What is a dark reaction? it is the second phase of photosynthesis that doesn't require light. What is the purpose of plants absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere? It needs to use CO2 to photosynthesize. What part of the plant takes in CO2? The leaves. What plants absorb large quantities of CO2? the plants that grow the fastest take in the most co2

PHEOCS Background Information

In plants where does photosynthesis manly occur? it primarily takes place in the chloroplasts of the leaves. Photosynthesis requires what three things? CO2, water, and sunlight. In plants where is carbon dioxide obtained? The leaves. In plants where is water obtained? In the roots. What is chlorophyll? it is the substance that makes the plant green.

In photosynthesis, solar energy is converted to chemical energy. How is the chemical energy stored? The energy is stored in the glucose before being turned into starch.

PHEOCS Background Information

These are the questions we will ask the expert. 1. What do you know about photosynthesis?

2. Do you know how photosynthesis happens? 3. Approximately how much carbon dioxide is used

in photosynthesis?

1. Basically, photosynthesis is the process by which a green plant makes food, converting solar energy to chemical energy. 2. Photosynthesis occurs inside the leaves’ chloroplasts whereby the chlorophyll absorbs sunlight. This solar energy allows the plant to convert carbon dioxide (taken in through the stomata in the leaves) and water (taken in through the roots) to chemical energy (food) in the form of sugar (glucose). The byproduct of this chemical conversion is oxygen, which is then released into the atmosphere.

3.If you are talking about molecules, then 6 molecules of carbon are used during the process. Here is the chemical equation: 6H₂O+6CO₂®C₆O₁₂H₆+6O₂ (six molecules of water plus six molecules of carbon dioxide produce one molecule of sugar plus six molecules of oxygen) If you are asking how much TOTAL CO₂ (say in pounds or tons) can be utilized by each plant or all plants, I have no idea. It would depend greatly on the size of the plant, the moisture content in the leaves, the temperature, the accessibility to obtain solar energy, among other factors. Our Expert was Jess Miller form Mosquito Hill Nature Center

PHEOCS Hypothesis

Our Hypothesis is: There will be more oxygen than carbon dioxide while testing photosynthesis in

the container

PHEOCS Designing experiment

Materials: -Carbon Dioxide sensor

-Oxygen sensor -Primrose plant

-Plant Dome -Lab Quest -Flash Drive

PHEOCS Designing experiment

Steps 1. Put some dirt in the bottom of the plant dome. 2. Place plant in the dirt with the leaves out of the dirt. Cover the roots with dirt.

3. Put in both oxygen sensor and carbon sensor.

oxygen and carbon dioxide sensor

PHEOCS Designing experiment

4. Plug wires in to the top of the lab quest.

plug in cords 5. plug in your flash drive.

6. Turn on the lab quest by pressing the power button in the upper left hand corner. When the Lab Quest comes on, you should see the different levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

7. There should be a pen in the back of the lab quest, next to the flash drive. Pull it out.

PHEOCS Designing experiment

8. Hold the pen and use it to click on the Oxygen label.

9. Then this should come up. Click “Change Units”.

10. Click the % sign. Do this for both.

PHEOCS

11. Then, click the little graph in the upper right hand corner.

12. When you are ready, hit play.

13. Then, it will start to record the data collected. The graph will stop automatically, because there is a timer for twenty seconds. 14. Do this about two times a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening for two days. 15. To save the data, click the word file. 16. Then options should come up. Click save. 17. Then, if your flash drive is plugged in, there should be an usb button. Click it.

18. On the bottom half of the screen, the file folders on your flash drive will appear. Click the one that you want to save the graph in. If you don’t see the folder you want, you can scroll down using the scroller on the right hand side of the screen.

19. if you wish to rename this graph, click the word untitled. A keyboard should appear, so click the back space button multiple times until it doesn’t say untitled any more. Type in what you want to name the graph. 20. Click save.

21. Click the power button again. This will turn off the lab quest. 22. Unplug all wires, take out flash drive, and pull out the sensors. 23. If you wish, you can plant the plant in a pot. Congratulations!! You just conducted an experiment!

PHEOCS

Top view of the full set up.

Running the experiment.

PHEOCS Observations

We could only get one graph to work, so we used the oxygen graph. As you can see, the highest point was at 2:00, that was when the sun was shinning in the window the most.

If we were to do it again…

• If we were to do this project again, I think we would do this with a healthier plant, and do the experiment multiple times, and take the average. This way the information would be more accurate. We only did this experiment once.

• If you are looking to do this project, you might want to add a couple things, or adjust it to your liking, but this is a good, easy experiment for measuring photosynthesis.

PHEOCS Conclusions

There was overall more oxygen than carbon

dioxide. This is proof that plants do photosynthesis.

PHEOCS Observations

Plants do photosynthesis mostly when the sun is directly shining on it.

PHEOCS Cite resources

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookps.html

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio104/photosyn.htm

These where our main websites for research.