1. How the amount of baking soda effects the time it takes for leaf disks to float? By: Joel, Sadie, Emir, and Harija Results Introduction Methods & MaterialsDiscussion Claim: When the spinach disks were put into 1, 5, and 7 grams of baking soda, it took them the longest to float in 1 gram. Evidence: The lowest average times were in the 5 and 7 gram experiments, 5 being the lowest out of all three amounts. -Our hypothesis didn’t match the evidence. The hypothesis said: If the amount of baking soda is increased then the leaf disks will rise faster because the extra will increase the rate of photosynthesis. Participants Harija Kalbic, Sadie King, Joel Champion, and Emir Husidic Our experiment question was, “How will the amount of baking soda affect the rate at which leaf disks float?” In this experiment the baking soda would be the carbon molecules and the time it took the leaf disks to float would be the rate of photosynthesis. The decision to do this was because we wanted to know if the rate of photosynthesis would speed up, slow down, or not be affected by the amount of carbon molecules added. Carbon molecules are important in the process of photosynthesis because it contributes in producing glucose, which is used by plants as energy and that energy helps plants form raw materials like, starch, cellulose, proteins, and other organic compounds needed for the development and growth of the plants. The energy will also help the plant with reproduction. Glucose is produced in the “2 nd stage” of photosynthesis; this is called the Calvin Cycle. The Calvin Cycle can occur without sunlight and is located in the stroma of the chloroplast. During this stage, the carbon molecules are fixed into glucose. Each time the Calvin Cycle occurs it leaves one carbon molecule for glucose, so that means the Calvin Cycle has to occur 6 times until glucose is produced. We assumed that the more baking soda (carbon molecules) we put in the experiment the speed of the Calvin Cycle would be quicker, which in all would speed up the rate of photosynthesis. This is why we found it interesting to do the experiment question of “How will the amount of baking soda affect the rate at which leaf disks float?” Insert your text here. You can place your organizations logos on either side of the title of the poster. Insert your The materials that you will need for this experiment are; a spinach leaf, hole puncher, beaker, baking soda, syringe(without a needle),DH2O,6 quarter container with light bulb (100 watt) inserted at the top, glass specimen bowl, cup, and a timer. Get a spinach leaf and a hole puncher and punch out ten leaf disks. After that, get a beaker, and fill it up with 100ml of dH2O and 1 gram of baking soda. Use a stirring rod to mix the baking soda in with the dH2O. Then get a 6quarter container with a light bulb inserted at the top and make sure to have the light bulb on so it can heat up. Have a glass specimen bowl at the bottom of the container to keep it standing and for the cup to be closer to the light bulb when you put it on top of the glass specimen bowl. Put the ten leaf disks into a syringe (without a needle).Push the leaf disks to the top of the syringe. (Leave a little amount of space at the top of the syringe). Put the syringe into carbon solution and suck up 10ml of the carbon solution. Push the syringe to the top until a little bit of water comes out in order to remove the air. Then, remove the air from the leaf disks, by covering up the syringe with your thumb and slowly pulling down on the syringe while shaking it slightly. Repeat this until all the leaf disks go to the bottom of the syringe. Once the leaf disks are at the bottom, empty the carbon solution and leaf disks from the syringe into the beaker with 100ml of carbon solution and 1 gram of baking soda. Now have a timer ready, then put the cup on top of the glass specimen bowl and start the timer. Record the time for how long it takes each of the leaf disks to float in a data table. Repeat the experiment with 1, 3,5,and 7 grams of baking soda. Do three trials for each amount of grams and average the time. Joel and Sadie waiting for leaf disks to float Our group ’ s results led us to the conclusion that the amount of baking soda in the solution does not affect the rate at which the leaf discs rise. Our data does not really support our hypothesis which was, “ If the amount of baking soda is increased then the leaf discs will rise faster because the extra carbon will increase the rate of photosynthesis." The data we collected pointed to the fact that the time it takes for the leaf discs is not affected that much by more baking soda in the solution, and if it is then it affects the time in a negative way. As in trial 8 which was a 7 gram trial, the third through tenth discs did not even come up. We as a group think this occurred because the leaf discs had too much solution inside of them which held them down. There were some critical errors in our experiment. One of these errors is that we left our leaf discs exposed to light between the trials. This would contaminate the discs causing our experiment to be flawed. Our original hypothesis was wrong we said that increasing the amount of baking soda will increase the rate of photosynthesis. This was wrong in the fact that our 7 gram trials were our slowest rising discs. This points to the fact that having too much baking soda will drown the discs not allowing them to rise. One more error is that our leaf discs were stuck to the bottom of the cup. We did not realize this until half way through of our trials. We fixed this by poking the leaf discs with a glass stirring rod. We do not know the actual time because after the discs were poked they immediately rose. If all these errors were fixed than I think that the experiment would have gone more smoothly and the results would have been more conclusive. Our group’s results led us to the conclusion that the amount of baking soda in the solution does not affect the rate at which the leaf discs rise. Our data does not really support our hypothesis which was, “If the amount of baking soda is increased then the leaf discs will rise faster because the extra carbon will increase the rate of photosynthesis." The data we collected pointed to the fact that the time it takes for the leaf discs is not affected that much by more baking soda in the solution, and if it is then it affects the time in a negative way. As in trial 8 which was a 7 gram trial, the third through tenth discs did not even come up. We as a group think this occurred because the leaf discs had too much solution inside of them which held them down. There were some critical errors in our experiment. One of these errors is that we left our leaf discs exposed to light between the trials. This would contaminate the discs causing our experiment to be flawed. Our original hypothesis was wrong we said that increasing the amount of baking soda will increase the rate of photosynthesis. This was wrong in the fact that our 7 gram trials were our slowest rising discs. This points to the fact that having too much baking soda will drown the discs not allowing them to rise. One more error is that our leaf discs were stuck to the bottom of the cup. We did not realize this until half way through of our trials. We fixed this by poking the leaf discs with a glass stirring rod. We do not know the actual time because after the discs were poked they immediately rose. If all these errors were fixed than I think that the experiment would have gone more smoothly and the results would have been more conclusive. Our group ’ s results led us to the conclusion that the amount of baking soda in the solution does not affect the rate at which the leaf discs rise. Our data does not really support our hypothesis which was, “ If the amount of baking soda is increased then the leaf discs will rise faster because the extra carbon will increase the rate of photosynthesis." The data we collected pointed to the fact that the time it takes for the leaf discs is not affected that much by more baking soda in the solution, and if it is then it affects the time in a negative way. As in trial 8 which was a 7 gram trial, the third through tenth discs did not even come up. We as a group think this occurred because the leaf discs had too much solution inside of them which held them down. There were some critical errors in our experiment. One of these errors is that we left our leaf discs exposed to light between the trials. This would contaminate the discs causing our experiment to be flawed. Our original hypothesis was wrong we said that increasing the amount of baking soda will increase the rate of photosynthesis. This was wrong in the fact that our 7 gram trials were our slowest rising discs. This points to the fact that having too much baking soda will drown the discs not allowing them to rise. One more error is that our leaf discs were stuck to the bottom of the cup. We did not realize this until half way through of our trials. We fixed this by poking the leaf discs with a glass stirring rod. We do not know the actual time because after the discs were poked they immediately rose. If all these errors were fixed than I think that the experiment would have gone more smoothly and the results would have been more conclusive. Reference: Class room notes on photosynthesis and the Calvin cycle How the experimental set-up should look!