Planting Science - Projects: ASHMIOLACOLE
You are here: Home / Groups / FHS Baeder Fall 2017 / Projects / ASHMIOLACOLE

ASHMIOLACOLE

Project by group fhsbaederfall2017

Explore What we know about plants from outside of school is that all plants go through photosynthesis. In class, we discovered how light affects how different plant types go through photosynthesis. A question about plants that still interests us is does the temperature of water affect photosynthesis?
Research Question What we want to test is water temperature n photosynthesis. How we came up with this question is by thinking of things we haven't done in class yet, we have only done things with spinach leaves and respiration in room temperature water, but not water that's hot or cold. This question fits what we know about the topic because it goes along with photosynthesis and what speeds it up, what inhibits it.
Predictions Some predictions we have for this project are that the water temperature will affect photosynthesis or respiration because hot temperatures cause enzymes helping with photosynthesis to denature, while cold temperatures will inhibit photosynthesis.
Experimental Design Our plan is to test whether or not water temperature has anything to do with photosynthesis. Our experiment is going to be like the last photosynthesis experiment we did with the leaf discs. The variable we will be testing for is whether the leaf discs will float or not, in a solution of hot water and sodium bicarbonate, room temperature water an sodium bicarbonate, and cold water and sodium bicarbonate. We will have 3 beakers, one beaker with sodium bicarbonate and hot water, that we will put 10 leaf discs in, one with room temperature water and sodium bicarbonate that we will put 10 leaf discs in, another with cold water and sodium bicarbonate that we will put 10 leaf discs in. We will record our data based on how many discs are floating in each beaker in an allotted time slot.
Conclusion Our question, in theory, was to test whether or not the temperature of water affects the rate of photosynthesis. Evidently, the room temperature sodium bicarbonate solution had the most discs floating at the end of ten minutes, which was all ten discs, which we expected to happen. The enzymes that are necessary for photosynthesis to occur were fully functioning at this temperature and made it more efficient in the allotted time that we had. On the other hand, the hot water, which was 155 degrees Celsius, had three discs floating at the end of the ten minutes. This occurred because the warm temperature caused denaturing of enzymes to occur, which inhibited the rate of the photosynthesis. On the other end of the spectrum, the ice water did not have any floating discs at the end of the ten minutes. This is partially because the low temperature does not allow the enzymes to function, but also the water was too cold for the one gram of sodium bicarbonate to dissolve, which was necessary for photosynthesis. The conclusion that we can draw from our experiment is that water temperature DOES affect the rate at which photosynthesis occurs. Future experiments that could be done to expand on the results of this experiment could be to test different types of leaves/plant species with a broader range of temperatures. These could be temperatures such as 500 degrees Celsius, -30 degrees Celsius, 80 degrees Celsius, and so on.
Investigation Theme POS
Grade Level High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12)
School Name Fenton High School
Session Fall 2017

LogoWithTags.png

f_logo_RGB-Black_72.png 2021_Twitter_logo_-_black.png icons8-mail-30.png

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

GET INVOLVED AS A TEACHER  *   GET INVOLVED AS A SCIENTIST MENTOR

SUPPORT US!   *   TERMS OF USE

NSF_Logo.jpg This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #2010556 and #1502892. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Copyright © 2022 PlantingScience -- Powered by HUBzero®, a Purdue project