Brett Murphy

Photosynthesis Lab Write-Up

Plants have the ability to harness the energy stored in light and use this energy to convert
molecules of carbon dioxide into usable sugars. As a by-product, oxygen gas is formed. When in
the presence of carbon dioxide, plants will perform this process, known as photosynthesis, and
will grow. The more carbon dioxide that is present for use by the plant, the more carbon dioxide
will be used by the plant, and therefore more oxygen gas will be produced by the plant.
The focus of this lab was to see the oxygen production that is a by-product of
photosynthesis. If the plant was performing photosynthesis and was producing oxygen, then the
plant discs should rise to the top of the beaker. In this lab, the independent variable was the
addition of carbon dioxide to the water in the beaker, and the control group was distilled water.
All other factorsleaf disc size, light exposure, etc.were kept constant.
In the second part of the lab, the focus was to see at what wavelengths of light the leaf
discs would perform photosynthesis the fastest: red, blue, or green. It was hypothesized that the
plants would perform photosynthesis the fastest under blue light and the slowest under green
light.
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Materials:
Hole punch
Leaves
Two cups for first experiment
Three cups for second experiment
Translucent squares of red, blue, and green colors large enough to cover the tops of the three
beakers
Distilled water
Carbonated water
Soaped water
Syringes
Light source
Timer
Procedure:
Gather materials and set-up data tables
Cut out two sets of ten (10) leaf discs using the hole punch.
Gather one set and put them into a syringe.
Take up 5 mL of the soaped water into the syringe and shake vigorously until the leaf discs have
all sunk to the bottom of the liquid in the syringe.
Empty the leaf discs into one cup filled with distilled water.
Repeat steps 3 and 4, and empty the leaf discs into the other cup filled with carbonated water.
(This step should be done simultaneously with steps 3-5).
Place both cups underneath the light source so that they each receive approximately the same
type of exposure. Begin timer.
Every minute for 15 minutes, record how many leaf discs have floated to the top of each cup.

9. To start the second experiment, repeat step 6 three times, using all carbonated water.

10. When you have finished preparing the cups, place the squares of either red, blue, or green
translucent paper on top of each of the three cups. Begin the timer.
11. Every minute for 15 minutes, record how many leaf discs have floated to the top of each cup.
Experiment One:

Experiment Two:

Both hypotheses proved correct. The leaf discs placed in the carbonated water produced
oxygen (went through photosynthesis) at a faster rate than those that were placed in distilled
water. (Theoretically, the leaf discs placed in distilled water should never rise to the top.) This
shows that when carbon dioxide is in high enough concentrations the plant will do
photosynthesis. An additional experiment could be done to look at how different concentrations
of carbon dioxide in water affect rate of photosynthesis.
The leaf discs that were exposed to blue light did photosynthesis the fastest, and the leaf
discs exposed to green light did photosynthesis the slowest. These results work in support of preexisting data that says plants work the best in blue light wavelengths of the visible light
spectrum, second best in red wavelengths, and the worst in green light (because chlorophyll is
green itself and therefore reflects light).
Sources of error could be that the cups were not all exposed to the same amount of light.
Also, due to waters refractive properties, our view of the leaf discs through the sides of the cups
could have been obstructed, causing us to miscount the number of risen leaf discs. In order to
improve the experiment, more leaf discs could be used in one cup.
Watkins, Thayer. The Direct and Indirect Effects of Increased Carbon Dioxide on Plant
Growth. San Jos State University. 13 Dec. 2014
<http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/CO2plants.htm>.