| Explore | They perform both photosynthesis and cellular respiration to make energy. In this class we have discovered that the higher the amount of CO2 in the plants environment the rate of photosynthesis increases. One question that interests us is what kind of light will have the highest rate of photosynthesis. |
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| Research Question | We want to test what kind of (artificial) light increases the rate of photosynthesis the most. This question fits what we know about the topic because plants need light to preform photosynthesis. |
| Predictions | Honestly not really sure, we predict that one of the kinds of light will preform photosynthesis the best. We think this will happen because the lights emit different types of light waves. |
| Experimental Design | Our plan is to follow the spinach leaf disk lab procedure for the baking soda cup and make 6 of them. We will then place one cup under the sunlight, one cup in the dark, one cup under fluorescent light, one cup under incandescent light (150 watt), one cup under 200 watt light, and one cup under 250 watt light. We will then monitor each of the cups and recoding the time of the first float, 50% floating, and the time of 100% floating. We will keep all variables such as the number of spinach disks, type of water, and distance from the light to the cup (other than sunlight) constant and only change the type of light. |
| Conclusion | From our experiment, we can make the claim that the 200 Watt light bulb was most effective of the artificial light in regards to rates of photosynthesis in spinach leaves. Although the evidence shows that the time at which all the leaf disks float is the same for both 200 and 250 Watt light bulbs, the first time measurement and the third time measurement of the 200 Watt lightbulb show that the rate of photosynthesis was faster under the 200 Watt lightbulb. A possible explanation for our results is that higher wattage might correlate with faster rates of photosynthesis. However, our data does not reflect this hypothesis, possibly due to some variety in the shape of the light bulb and the amount of heat generated by the 250 Watt that was not present in the 200 Watt. |
| Investigation Theme | POS |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | Mountain View High School |
| Session | Fall 2017 |