Grace Valchar, Chris Mills, Lindsey Smith

AP Biology
Mrs. Hawley
March 5, 2018

Multimedia Lab Report: Conclusion

The data produced from this lab accurately demonstrated the process of photosynthesis

and the factors that may alter the rate of this reaction. As shown in the data sheet of all the

groups and their results, the control and added CO2 groups produced the highest rate of floating

leaf cut-outs. This would be in line with how the reaction of photosynthesis works because the

additional carbon dioxide would allow more reactions of photosynthesis to take place in the leaf

because of how plentiful the reactant is. Those were the extremes (maximums) of the total data

collecting; averaging approximately to 8 as the amount of floating leaf cut-outs. The two groups

that had the lowest averages were us (without the heat cover) and the group that used the UV

light. Between these two groups, the average amount was approximately 0.5 and at only 20 mins

did our group have more than one leaf floating. This implies that these conditions impaired the

leaf and its ability to carry out photosynthesis. From this information, one can deduct that the

best conditions of the environment for the highest rate of photosynthesis to occur in a leaf would

be plentiful CO2 and protection from direct UV light.

Although it is believed that these test results are accurate and reliable, our group had only

used three leaf cut-outs. This could have resulted in human error in the experiment as the amount

of floating leafs may have been different if we had put 10 leaf cut-outs like groups such as the

control and added CO2 did. Therefore, the rate of photosynthesis may have been higher than

what our group’s results demonstrated due to this experimental error.

To conclude, this lab demonstrated how photosynthesis directly affects a plant’s leaf by
producing oxygen gas that was seen through bubbles that made the leaf cut-outs float. This

experiment, including testing the variables that change the reaction rate, informed us the best

conditions in which a plant should be in order to be most productive and what factors slow or

prevent the reaction.