| Explore | We know from our experiences outside of school that plants usually start out as a seed and that they require certain materials to grow; water, sun, soil. In class we learned that every plant uses Photosynthesis to grow, make glucose, and create oxygen. We would like to know why the leaves of a pine tree doesn't change colors during fall. |
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| Research Question | Will adding shade to one of the two cups of our water solution slow down the process of the spinach's photosynthesis? This question relates to what we know about photosynthesis because we know that plants need light to do photosynthesis and adding shade could affect it's growth. To come up with this question, we brainstormed factors that could slow down photosynthesis. |
| Predictions | We predicted that adding shade to one of our cups would slow down the process of it's photosynthesis. We believed this would happen because plants need a constant light source to grow and do photosynthesis. |
| Experimental Design | 1) Fill two cups with 1/2 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. 2) Punch 20 holes in a spinach leaf 3) Put the spinach discs inside of a syringe filled with the water and baking soda solution and get the air out of the discs. 4) Put 10 discs in each cup. 5) Put one lamp 4 inches away from the top of each cup. 6) After 2 minutes, cover one lamp with lens paper, the next 2 minutes, uncover the same lamp. 7) Repeat this process after 6 minutes and record the number of spinach discs floating in a data table after every minute. We will keep the amount of water, baking soda, and discs in each cup constant. We will change the light source by adding shade. |
| Conclusion | Adding shade to one of the cups will not down slow the process of the spinach's photosynthesis. In our experiment, the results were different both days. On Day 1, five spinach discs from the shaded cup did photosynthesis (rised to the top of the cup) after 6 minutes. On Day 2, only three discs from the shaded cup did photosynthesis. However, on both trial days, there was at least two or more spinach discs doing photosynthesis in the non-shaded cup after the 6 minutes was up. In the future, this experiment could be improved by testing it over a longer period of time and with more cups for accurate results. |
| Investigation Theme | POS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | Ottawa Township High School |
| Session | Fall 2018 |