Emily Singerman Science 4 November 14, 2013 PHOTOSYNTHESIS SUMMATIVE PROJECT PROBLEM: How does doubling the amount

of carbon dioxide from .5g of bisodium carbonate dissolved in 100mL of water to 1g. dissolved in 100mL of water affect the rate of photosynthesis in elodea? HYPOTHESIS: If carbon dioxide (by doubling baking soda) is increased, then the rate of photosynthesis will increase. THEORY: Photosynthesis is when chlorophyll in leaves will capture the suns natural energy and use it to produce glucose and oxygen. Carbon dioxide and water some main recourses of all life. If photosynthesis didnt exist, life on earth would not last long at all. This is because all humans on earth are called heterotrophs. Heterotrophs are organisms that depend on any other organisms to get the energy and oxygen they need. Kind of like a food chain. That means that without plants, mammals would not be able to get the energy or oxygen they need, so all life on earth would be gone in very little time. Things on earth that have the ability to do photosynthesis are called autotrophs. That means that they can make their own food without having to depend on other things or organisms to get the glucose and energy they need. As I researched, sodium bicarbonate has carbon dioxide. Just like I had said before, carbon dioxide is one of the main ingredients for photosynthesis to happen. So if the sodium bicarbonate is added to the water, the plant will produce more oxygen, due to the extra carbon dioxide in the baking soda. If you were to start an experiment, and you had some type of plant in a test tube drowned in water. The next thing you would do is to add the baking soda to one test tube, and then you will have another test tube. This test tube will have all the same ingredients, just double the amount of sodium bicarbonate. Procedure: 1. Measure and cut the elodea at 7 to 9 cm cut diagonally and lightly crush end of stem. 2. Measure mass in grams and record into data table. 3. Put the elodea in a test tube with crushed side up. 4. Fill test tube with water and baking soda solution (1 gram to 100 mL of water) and make sure to cover entire plant. 5. Put tube in rack and adjust lamp 5 cm away from the test tube. 6. Turn on lamp and let it warm for one minute. 7. After 1 minute, begin counting small, medium and large bubbles for 3 minutes. Record data. 8. Repeat the process, except with .5 grams and 100mL of water.

9. Start Trial 2, and add double amount of baking soda Conclusion: In this lab, we were figuring out the discrepancy of doubling .5g of baking soda dissolved in 100mL of water to 1g, dissolved in 100mL of water affect the rate of photosynthesis in the elodea. I hypothesized that for this lab, doubling the amount of baking soda would increase the amount of photosynthesis. The average rate of oxygen bubbles for my group was 35.75% decrease in bubbles. For the whole 4th period average, was 30.85%. In conclusion, my hypothesis was incorrect. Analysis: Based on the 2013 data, I see some inconsistencies that might not be right. One thing I found a little odd about the baking soda procedure is that period 7 had a very large increase of data from .5 grams of CO2/baking soda to 1 gram of CO2/baking soda than most of the other periods. I find this interesting, because if you are only adding .5 grams more of the baking soda/CO2, you should not get a 69 gram difference because that is just far too high and in my opinion I would think that you would need more than 3 minutes for the double to get that high of a number. One other inconsistency that I found very interesting is that some periods had their numbers decrease when they doubled the amount of baking soda/CO2. I find this interesting because I would think that if you were to blow twice the amount of CO2 to a plant than just normal breathing, then the plant should be able to photosynthesize faster and more with proper watering and sunlight. I think that some of the reasons why this could have happened are because someone could have had too little water, and that could have caused to have littler or less bubbles when doubling the baking soda. Another reason is that some bubbles might have not been in sight because of the placing the bubble counter was at for the second trial of bubble counting. One way that period 7 might have had such a difference from trial one to trial two, is one group could have added too much baking soda, which would cause more CO2 to come into the elodea to produce more photosynthesis. Another possible reason is too little baking soda. Even though there would not be that much CO2, I think that there might be a possibility that since there is littler, not as much baking soda can spread apart which means that more of the baking soda can do directly into the elodea. I think that too much baking soda can get spread out easily and not go straight into the elodea and might fall into the bottom of the tube a little, so the plant might take more time to photosynthesize. Bibliography Coolidge-Stolz M.D., Elizabeth, et al. Focus On Life Science. Boston, Mass: Prentice Hall, 2008. Washington State Department of Ecology. American Waterweed- A Common Native Plant. February 24, 2003. November 2013. <http://www.ecy.wa.gov/Programs/wq/plants/native/elodea.html>

Young, Paul. The Botany Coloring Book. Cambridge, New York: Harper and Row, 1982. DATA/OBSERVATIONS: Trial 1 gram Oxygen Produced in 3 minutes with .5 g and 1 g baking soda Mass in Grams: 1.8 Small x 1 CO2 1 gram .5 gram 18*1 = 18 8*1= 8 Medium x 2 1*2 = 2 2*2 = 4 Large x 3 1*3= 3 1*3 = 3 Total 23 15

Trial 2 grams Oxygen Made in 3 minutes with .5 g and 1 g baking soda Mass in Grams: 1.7 Small x 1 Medium x 2 Large x 3 Total CO2 1 gram 18*1 = 18 3*2 = 6 0*3= 0 24 .5 gram 20*1 = 20 2*2 = 4 3*3 = 9 33

AVERAGE FOR BOTH TRIALS:

TRIALS 1 2 TOTAL AVERAGE/2 .5 grams 15 24 48/2 24 1 gram 23 33 23/2 23

2013 AVERAGE DATA IN 3 MINUTES FROM 5 DIFFERENT CLASSES Baking Soda

.5g CLASS PERIOD AVERAGES 1 2 3 4 6 7 1g % Oxygen Decrease/Increase

108 69 33.7 23.7 26.3 3.8

139 47 26.5 14.3 36.3 72.8

61.30% Increase 44.9% Decrease 21.36%Decrease 39.66%Decrease 36.15%Increase 67.58%Increase

TOTAL/5 AVERAGE

264.5/6 44.1

335.9/6 56

AMMOUNT OF BUBBLES PER 3 MINUTES

COMPARISON OF AVERAGES FOR DOUBLING CO2

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 GROUP 4TH PERIOD 7TH GRADE 24 23.5 23.7 14.3 0.5 GRAMS 1GRAM 44.1 56