| Explore | From our experiences outside of school we know plants are part of our lives and surround us with beauty. They provide us with oxygen to breathe and food to eat to sustain daily survival. A plant begins its life as a seed then blossoms into strong natural resources and how they do this is by a chemical reaction called Photosynthesis. In class, we discovered the effect of temperature, sunlight, water, glucose and various metabolic pathways that contribute to the process of photosynthesis (the metabolic process transforming radiant solar energy into chemical energy as carbohydrates). The various questions that interest us about plants are: 1.How might the rate of photosynthesis differ depending on the conditions of a plant? 2. How might the temperature the plant is in effect the rate of photosynthesis |
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| Research Question | How does different colours of leaves affect the rate of photosynthesis? From Our knowledge of Absorption of Light energy and Pigments compounds give off when absorbing certain wavelengths of visible light, we are able to identify the different pigments in the different color leaves such as chlorophyll a (blue-green), chlorophyll b (olive green), violaxanthin (yellow), lutein (yellow), and carotene (yellow-orange). |
| Predictions | Green leaves will have a higher rate of photosynthesis than any other color of leaves because green leaves contain more chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b which largely affects the rate of photosynthesis. Red, orange, yellow and, brown leaves will have a lower rate of photosynthesis due to the lack of chlorophyll a and b that the leaves contain. |
| Experimental Design | Our plan is to create an experiment design where we have to see the effect of colours on the rate of photosynthesis. We will test the colour variable for green, red, orange, yellow and brown leaves. The colour and the time are the variables that we will measure and observe. The amount of sunlight, the amount of water and temperature are the variables that will be kept constant. The data will be recorded using a chart to display the different rates of photosynthesis between the various leaves. |
| Conclusion | We claim that during the fall, the amount of sunlight varies due to the change in time towards the winter, so the rate of photosynthesis changes as well. If green leaves have a significantly higher rate of photosynthesis than yellow leaves, green leaves will contain more green chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b photosynthetic pigments than yellow leaves. A future experiment that could be done to expand on the results of this experiment is taking account of the history of the particular tree that the leave is coming from. |
| Investigation Theme | POS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | David & Mary Thomson C. I. |
| Session | Fall 2017 |