Photosynthesis VS Radiation The Gooners Wooners Kyle Newman Zach Maresh Kyle Nacey Josh Baryla

Background Info O Radiation O Radiation is the emission of energy through electromagnetic waves O The radiation we used had a wavelength between 3cm and.3cm O Radiation is known to easily be able to kill plants in high doses

Background information O What is photosynthesis? O 6 CO2 + 6 H2O+ energy → C6H12O6 + 6 O2 + 6 H2O O This is the process that allows plants to create energy in the form of glucose molecules

Purpose? Why? The purpose of performing this procedure is to find out if radiation will affect the rate of photosynthesis. Hypothesis? If the amount of time the plant is being exposed with the microwave radiation increases, then the plant will not photosynthesize at as high of a rate.

Procedure Procedure: O Grow 4 soy bean plants in a solo cup with decent amounts of soil (4 cups) O Add 25 mL of water to the cups, add more until soil is damp O Keep soil damp until experiment is conducted O Keep plants in a light box to give each plant equal light O On experiment day pull plants out of the light box O Pull leaves off plants for usage O Hole punch 10 leaf disks for each dependent variable O Microwave leaf disks, each set at different times except the control. ( 1 second, 5 seconds, 10 seconds) O Gather up all supplies for the floating leaf disk experiment O Create a sodium bicarbonate solution by adding 1/8 tsp. of baking soda to 300 mL of water O Add a few drops of dish soap to the solution O Swirl up the solution, make sure to not make any bubbles O Put leaf disks in a syringe O Push the syringe down to leave minimal air in the syringe without crushing the leaves O Draw out a decent amount of sodium bicarbonate, about a third of the syringe O Hold your finger over the end of the syringe, pull the syringe to create a vacuum, shake the syringe until all leaf disks sink to the bottom of the syringe O Extract the disks from the syringes O Then place disks in a cup of sodium bicarbonate solution, about 3 cm deep O Start timing and keep track the time of when the leaf disks float to the top (releasing O2)

Data O We had two different sets of p-values due to the way we recorded our data. O One set was with exact times O The other was with how many disks were floating per minute for an hour

Data O P-values for exact times O Control compared to 1 second of radiation, p-value of.2146 O Control compared to 5 seconds of radiation, p-value of.2902 O Control compared to 10 seconds of radiation, p-value of.4007 O Based on this data we accepted the null hypothesis

Data O P-values based on floating disks every minute O Control/1 second, p-value of.0025 O Control/5 seconds, p-value of.0001 O Control/10 seconds, p-value of.0166 O Based on this set of p-values we would reject the null hypothesis

Conclusion O Based on our data, we have decided to reject the null hypothesis. Due to the fact that the times that the radiated leaves started to float as compared to the control was far longer. We used the p-values from the floaters per minute to make this conclusion also.

Limitations and Implications Limitations? O We were limited in this procedure because we only had one type of radiation available to us. O We were also limited on using only 1100 MW. O When we microwaved the leaf samples, they were very hard to hole punch. O Only half of the leaf disks floated after sixty minutes of light exposure. Implications? O We have discovered that radiation negatively affects the rate of plant photosynthesis.

Work Cited O Diprose, M F., F A. Benson, and A J. Willis. Botanical Review. N.p.: Springer, Print. O NASA. NASA, 31 May Web. 25 Mar. 2013