Alright, so to prepare for tomorrow's lab, called Scientific Investigation: Elodea
You are responsible for completing these pre-lab questions on your own.
Let's read them together to highlight the key words.
What do plants require for photosynthesis to occur?
So for this question, you have to ask yourself
what does a plant need in order to go through the process of photosynthesis?
Number 2, How could you test whether or not plants actually need carbon dioxide or water
or light in order for photosynthesis to occur?
So for this question, think about how could you experiment
and for sure figure out whether or not a plant truly needs carbon dioxide, water, or light.
Finally, question number 3. What evidence would indicate photosynthesis had occurred?
The key word here is evidence.
Meaning what can you look for in your experiment that proves that photosynthesis did occur?
So take a minute, pause the video, and answer the first 3 pre-lab questions on your own in complete sentences.
Alright, so now that you have answered the pre-lab questions,
let's go over our big research question for this lab.
On this section here, what are we trying to figure out?
What is our question?
So, our research question is...
Is radient energy (light) required for photosynthesis to occur?
So take a moment to write that down on your worksheet on Notability.
Alright, number 2, Relevance
Why is photosynthesis so important to life on Earth?
Well this is the question that we have explored already,
so you should have a pretty good idea of why life on Earth requires photosynthesis
then in turn, requires plants.
So, here's what you should write down for the Relevance,
Plants get their food to grow from photosynthesis
and form the first link in the food chain for many organisms, including us, humans.
Nearly all life on Earth is dependent on plants for energy and oxygen.
So take a moment to write down the relevance on your lab sheet.
Ok, on page 2 of your lab sheet, I want to draw your attention to the very bottom.
We are going to start and do our hypothesis, but we are going to come back to that later in the video.
At the bottom here, you want to make sure that you write down the safety considerations for this lab
which is wash your hands after handling the Elodea.
So please pause the video and write that down on your lab sheet.
Now that you have filled out the pre-lab questions and hypothesis,
and looked over the safety considerations and materials,
you are ready to begin the Elodea lab.
First of all, your group should decide
if you are going to put the beaker in the dark closet or under the grow lights
and half of the class will do one and half of the class will do the other.
You and your lab group are going to do one beaker set-up,
so when the materials manager comes back to your table,
you should have an empty beaker, as well as, some other supplies that I will go over.
First of all, you need to identify that this is your beaker
by taking a sticker label out and writing down the period number of your class and group number.
Then put that on the beaker.
Then you need to get 500 mL of distilled water
That distilled water is in jugs on the counter
So you'll measure 500 mL
and carefully bring that back.
Now, we want to add a little extra carbon dioxide.
We know that plants need water and carbon dioxide.
So, baking soda will do that.
We want to add 2 scoops of baking soda that is in a little clear container.
We want it to be level, so shake off any that mounds up on the top
and put 2 level scoops in.
Close up the container and stir with a popsicle stick.
Now that you are done stirring the baking soda into the water,
you'll need to take the test tube and fill it almost full with the solution
and have then one person in your lab group hold the test tube to use later and you'll see why.
So I'll just set that aside.
Alright, now you are ready for the Elodea plant, you'll need to get that from your bucket.
The bucket is set up in the back of the lab
you'll get out about a 10 cm piece of Elodea, cut it off if it's too long
and then take a paper towel and carry it back to your table.
Now, you'll want to take the funnel and place the Elodea loosely inside the funnel.
Don't shove the Elodea up into the top of the funnel or it will plug up any activity that we want to see happen.
So, you'll put that in there and then place it inside your beaker.
The funnel will stay down once we put the test tube on top.
Now, while you're holding this down under the water level, you're going to have to have
another person in your group put plastic wrap over the test tube.
While the water is still inside and then you'll hold down the top of the funnel,
while they turn the test tube upside down, with the plastic wrap still on.
They'll submerge it in the water and only after it is submerged in the water, will they pull off the plastic
and then carefully put the top of the test tube over the top of the funnel.
You don't want to actually have any extra air enter
After you've got that done, you're going to measure with the ruler, that's also in your bin,
how many centimeters or millimeters of air space there is.
You are going to write that down on your lab sheet.
That's the empty space in the test tube for day 1.
Then you are ready to go place your beaker under the correct conditions.
Either the grow lights that are on the counter or the dark closet.
Now that you have just seen Mrs. Ritter go over the procedure,
it might be a good idea to open up to the procedure pages in your lab and review the steps on your own,
highlighting key details and important measurements that you need to know for the lab tomorrow.
Now that you have a good understanding of what the expectations for this experiment are,
now it's your opportunity to go back to page 2 of your lab sheet and answer the hypothesis.
What do you think the result of this experiment will be?
Again, we're having two different beakers
one lab group is going to have their beaker in the light and one lab group is going to have their beaker in the dark.
What do you think the outcome, or the result, of this experiment will be?
Be sure to explain your answer.
The Variables section, we will complete on a different day, so you will not have to fill out the Variables section.
