Mayra
Name ___________________________
How do different environmental conditions impact the rate of photosynthesis?
Background Information: All life on Earth ultimately relies on the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis
is responsible for converting light energy into glucose (food) that producers (plants) use for energy and growth.
This energy can then be transferred to other organisms in food webs. The equation for photosynthesis is…
6CO2
______________ 6H2O
+ ______________ LIGHT ______________
————> C6H2O 6O2
+ _____________
Reactants Products
In this lab, you will use algae beads to measure the rate (speed) of photosynthesis. The
beads contain an algae (Scenedesmus obliquus) surrounded in alginate. Alginate is a sugar
found in seaweed that is also used to make boba that is found in boba tea!
oxygen
The algae beads you will use are placed in a CO2 indicator solution. This solution changes
color as the pH changes. pH is a number that measures how acidic something is. The
more CO2 in the indicator solution, the lower the pH will be, making it yellow in color.
If the amount of CO2 decreases, the pH will increase and the color will change to a
purple color.
1. Label the tube below that has the most CO2 and the tube that has the least amount of CO2
2. Which color represents the tube where the most amount of photosynthesis has occurred?
Hint: Remember that CO2 is absorbed during photosynthesis!
ME p ysthesis EMhephoto
Your Goal: The class will start with 7 tubes of algae beads. The starting pH will be 7.6. Together, we will
change the environmental conditions that the algae beads are in to see how each condition impacts the rate of
photosynthesis. You will determine the rate of photosynthesis by how quickly the indicator changes color.
Materials Available:
Algae beads (x3) LED light fluorescent light light filters (change the color of light)
Ice heating pad screens (can decrease light) incandescent light
General Procedure
1. Place the 7 tubes in their environmental conditions. Remember that there should only be one thing
different between your experimental trial and the control group (normal light and temp)
2. Collect data starting at time = 0 min. Every 5 min, thoroughly mix the CO2 indicator in the tube and
determine the pH using the scale of colors on the card.
3. Be quick about taking your reading and immediately return the tubes to the experimental conditions.
4. Continue until 40 total minutes have elapsed.
Experimental Question: How different environmental conditions impact the rate (speed) of photosynthesis?
Sketch of Your Experiment. What will your experiment look like?
lamp
not co
Mf Ixtle Egos por got
1
My Ms
Hypothesis - Choose ONE condition (amount of light, color, temps, etc.) to make a hypothesis about.
We change the the color of light to neon green light
If...______________________________________________________________________________________________,
the amount of photosynthesis will increase.
then….__________________________________________________________________________________________.
Independent Variable (what you are changing) Envornmentalcontition
color of
change neongreen
light
Dependent Variable (what you are measuring)
How fast the ph level changes.
Experimental Constants (List at least 3)
-same lamp/led light -same type of alga bead
-Same time to check -same time we put it
back in the light
DATA TABLE (Take a screenshot of the spreadsheet and paste it here!)
GRAPH (Take a screenshot of the graph and paste it here!)
CER - Reflect on your hypothesis using the CER format. In your reasoning, provide a possible explanation for
why the rate of photosynthesis was different or the same compared to the control group.
Neon Green light
Experimental Question: How does ________________________________ impact the rate of photosynthesis?
I observed that, when using the Neon Green light the rate of photosynthesis
__________________________________________________________________________________________
increased.
In the data, the control group and the Neon Green light both started with 7.6
__________________________________________________________________________________________
pH. While after 35 minutes the control group had the pH of 8.1 and the neon
green light had the pH of 8.3. Then after 45 minutes, the control group had
__________________________________________________________________________________________
the pH of 8.3 and the neon green light had the pH of 8.4. i
__________________________________________________________________________________________
All this proves that, when using neon green light the rate of photosynthesis
increased. For example, we know that because the ph is higher the less co2
__________________________________________________________________________________________
it will have making more photosynthesis occurs in the neon green light. Also
the control group had a lower amount of pH then the amount of
__________________________________________________________________________________________
photosynthesis is less. Also for the Neon green light it had a higher level of
pH causing it to have less co2, meaning it had more photosynthesis.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Showing us that the Neon Green light increased the rate of photosynthesis
__________________________________________________________________________________________
because the control group had the ph of 8.3 and the Neon Green light had
the pH of 8.4.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
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