| Explore | We know plants need water, oxygen, and sunlight. We learned in school that sunlight does not have mass and that plants need carbon to perform photosynthesis. Questions that interest us are the following: Do certain plants perform photosynthesis faster than others? How fast can a plant perform photosynthesis? What environments can plants live in? Why do plants usually have leaves? |
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| Research Question | Does baking soda and salt water perform photosynthesis faster than just baking soda water? |
| Predictions | We think the spinach cup with baking soda and salt will rise faster than the cup with just baking soda because salt has carbon dioxide as well as baking soda. So double the CO2 the faster the spinach will rise. |
| Experimental Design | For our experiment we're going to have two cups filled with 2 inches of water and one cup will have 1 teaspoon of baking soda and the other will have 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt. We take the spinach disk and take out the air and then put them in the cups under a lamp. We wait 10 minutes and record how many spinach disk have risen every minute. |
| Conclusion | Yes, baking soda and salt water perform photosynthesis faster than regular baking soda water while being under light for 10 minutes. The baking soda with salt water made the spinach rise and float faster than the baking soda water. In our data it shows that the spinach disks floated to the top faster in the salt and baking soda water, in the baking soda water our data shows that it had a steady increase verses our baking soda and salt water changed rapidly and fast. The reason behind why we tested salt and baking soda was because if someone lives by the sea then they obviously have the resources of salt water and not fresh water, we wanted to see if someone could use salt water to help their plants grow faster. |
| Investigation Theme | POS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| Teacher Name | Aubrey Mikos |
| School Name | Ottawa Township High School |
| Session | Spring 2021 |