Edgar’s Photosynthesis!
By Rachel Wege and Anna Gorski
PHEOCS Investigation
What happens during photosynthesis?
That was the question we asked. So to
start we surfed the web to figure out the
basics about photosynthesis. But
websites could only hold so much
information, so we designed our own
experiment.
PHEOCS Background Information
Our Questions…
What is glucose and how is it made? Glucose is a sugar, and is made by the chemical
reaction in the plant's cell.
When sunlight hits an organism that can perform photosynthesis one of three things can
happen.
Light could be reflected absorbed or too much can be absorbed and can give the plant a
“sunburn” so to speak.
What is a dark reaction? it is the second phase of photosynthesis that doesn't require
light.
What is the purpose of plants absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere?
It needs to use CO2 to photosynthesize.
What part of the plant takes in CO2? The leaves.
What plants absorb large quantities of CO2? the plants that grow the fastest take in the
most co2
PHEOCS
Background Information
In plants where does photosynthesis manly occur? it primarily takes place in the
chloroplasts of the leaves.
Photosynthesis requires what three things? CO2, water, and sunlight.
In plants where is carbon dioxide obtained? The leaves.
In plants where is water obtained? In the roots.
What is chlorophyll? it is the substance that makes the plant green.
In photosynthesis, solar energy is converted to chemical energy. How is the
chemical energy stored? The energy is stored in the glucose before being turned into
starch.
PHEOCS
Background Information
These are the questions we will ask the expert.
1. What do you know about photosynthesis?
2. Do you know how photosynthesis happens?
3. Approximately how much carbon dioxide is used
in photosynthesis?
1.
Basically, photosynthesis is the process by which a green plant makes food, converting solar energy
to chemical energy.
2.
Photosynthesis occurs inside the leaves’ chloroplasts whereby the chlorophyll absorbs sunlight. This
solar energy allows the plant to convert carbon dioxide (taken in through the stomata in the leaves) and
water (taken in through the roots) to chemical energy (food) in the form of sugar (glucose). The byproduct
of this chemical conversion is oxygen, which is then released into the atmosphere.
PHEOCS Background Information
3.If you are talking about molecules, then 6 molecules of
carbon are used during the process. Here is the chemical
equation: 6H₂O+6CO₂®C₆O₁₂H₆+6O₂ (six molecules of water
plus six molecules of carbon dioxide produce one molecule
of sugar plus six molecules of oxygen)
If you are asking how much TOTAL CO₂ (say in pounds or
tons) can be utilized by each plant or all plants, I have no
idea. It would depend greatly on the size of the plant, the
moisture content in the leaves, the temperature, the
accessibility to obtain solar energy, among other factors.
Our Expert was Jess Miller form Mosquito Hill Nature Center
Our Hypothesis is:
There will be more oxygen
than carbon dioxide while
testing photosynthesis in
the container
PHEOCS Hypothesis
Materials:
-Carbon Dioxide sensor
-Oxygen sensor
-Primrose plant
-Plant Dome
-Lab Quest
-Flash Drive
PHEOCS Designing experiment
Steps
1. Put some dirt in the bottom of the plant
dome.
2. Place plant in the dirt with the leaves
out of the dirt. Cover the roots with dirt.
3. Put in both oxygen sensor and
carbon sensor.
oxygen and carbon dioxide sensor
PHEOCS Designing experiment
4. Plug wires in to the
top of the lab quest.
6. Turn on the lab quest by pressing the power
button in the upper left hand corner. When the
Lab Quest comes on, you should see the
different levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
7. There should be a pen in the
back of the lab quest, next to the
flash drive. Pull it out.
plug in cords
5. plug in your flash drive.
PHEOCS Designing experiment
8. Hold the pen and use it
to click on the Oxygen
label.
9. Then this should
come up. Click “Change
Units”.
10. Click the % sign. Do this for both.
PHEOCS Designing experiment
11. Then, click the little
graph in the upper right
hand corner.
12. When you are ready, hit play.
13. Then, it will start to record the data collected. The graph
will stop automatically, because there is a timer for twenty
seconds.
14. Do this about two times a day, once in the morning, and
once in the evening for two days.
15. To save the data, click the word file.
16. Then options should come up. Click save.
17. Then, if your flash drive is plugged in, there should be an
usb button. Click it.
PHEOCS
18. On the bottom half of the screen, the file folders on your flash drive will appear. Click the one
that you want to save the graph in. If you don’t see the folder you want, you can scroll down
using the scroller on the right hand side of the screen.
19. if you wish to rename this graph, click the
word untitled. A keyboard should appear, so
click the back space button multiple times until
it doesn’t say untitled any more. Type in what
you want to name the graph.
20. Click save.
21. Click the power button again. This will turn
off the lab quest.
22. Unplug all wires, take out flash drive, and
pull out the sensors.
23. If you wish, you can plant the plant in a
pot.
Congratulations!! You just conducted an
experiment!
PHEOCS
Top view of the full set up.
Running the experiment.
PHEOCS Observations
We could only get one graph to work, so
we used the oxygen graph. As you can see,
the highest point was at 2:00, that was
when the sun was shinning in the window
the most.
If we were to do it again…
• If we were to do this project again, I think we would do
this with a healthier plant, and do the experiment
multiple times, and take the average. This way the
information would be more accurate. We only did this
experiment once.
• If you are looking to do this project, you might want to
add a couple things, or adjust it to your liking, but this is
a good, easy experiment for measuring photosynthesis.
There was overall more
oxygen than carbon
dioxide. This is proof that
plants do photosynthesis.
PHEOCS Conclusions
Plants do photosynthesis
mostly when the sun is
directly shining on it.
PHEOCS Observations
These where our main websites for research.
http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookps.html
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio104/photosyn.htm
PHEOCS Cite resources