Scribd
Upload
55 views

3A5 Practical - Rate of Photosynthesis

This document describes an experiment to measure the rate of photosynthesis in the aquatic plant Elodea canadensis by counting the number of oxygen bubbles produced from cut stems under varying conditions. It provides two experiments: 1) Varying light intensity with CO2 and temperature held constant, and 2) Varying CO2 concentration with light and temperature held constant. Students are instructed to conduct the experiments virtually and record their results in tables to plot graphs and draw conclusions about how light intensity and CO2 concentration affect the rate of photosynthesis.

Uploaded by

Asma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
55 views

3A5 Practical - Rate of Photosynthesis

This document describes an experiment to measure the rate of photosynthesis in the aquatic plant Elodea canadensis by counting the number of oxygen bubbles produced from cut stems under varying conditions. It provides two experiments: 1) Varying light intensity with CO2 and temperature held constant, and 2) Varying CO2 concentration with light and temperature held constant. Students are instructed to conduct the experiments virtually and record their results in tables to plot graphs and draw conclusions about how light intensity and CO2 concentration affect the rate of photosynthesis.

Uploaded by

Asma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Measuring the rate of photosynthesis

Textbook p143-4
Learning objectives:
1) Practical: Investigate photosynthesis, showing the evolution of oxygen from a water plant
2) Understand how varying carbon dioxide concentration, light intensity and temperature affect the rate of
photosynthesis

Write out the equation for photosynthesis, using either words or symbols:

One method we can use to measure how much photosynthesis is occurring is to look at how quickly the O 2 gas is
being produced.
This is made even easier If we use aquatic plants, such as the Canadian pondweed (Elodea canadensis). This
plant grows underwater and when a stem is cut off, O 2 gas produced by photosynthesis escapes as bubbles from
the cut stem.
Counting the number of bubbles released from the stem each minute tells us how fast photosynthesis is
occurring (i.e. the rate of photosynthesis)

Elodea is in short supply in Kuwait, so we will do an online version of this experiment.


Use the site: https://iwant2study.org/lookangejss/biology/ejss_model_photosynthesis/
photosynthesis_Simulation.xhtml

Experiment 1: Measuring the effect of light intensity on photosynthesis


Experiment design -
Independent variable: Dependent variable:
Control variables:

1. Set the light intensity to “0”


2. Press the Play symbol
3. Count the number of bubbles produced in one minute (timer is at the bottom right)
4. Change the light intensity and repeat THINK: how would we change the light intensity in real life?
5. Fill in your results into the table below:
Light intensity (arbitrary units) Gas production (bubbles/minute)
X Y

6. Plot the 0 results as a


graph 1

7. Describe 2 the results:


3
4
5
6
Experiment 2: Measuring the effect of CO2 concentration on photosynthesis
Experiment design -
Independent variable: Dependent variable:
Control variables:

1. Change the CO2 concentration to 0%


2. Count the number of bubbles produced per minute
3. Change the CO2 concentration and repeat
4. Fill in your results in the table below
CO2 concentration (%) Gas production (bubbles/minute)
X Y
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30

5. Plot the results as a graph


6. Describe these results?

Conclusion:
Explain the results from each experiment:
a) (light intensity)

b) (carbon dioxide concentration)

Extension:
Evaluation:
 What assumptions are making with this experiment, which might not be correct?

 How could we improve the experiment by getting rid of these assumptions?

You might also like