1. Photosynthesis Lab Leaf Disc Assay
F Block

2. An Educational Slide Created By Squade (Andy, Alex, Colin, Jordyn)
Photosynthesis Lab
An Educational Slide Created By Squade
(Andy, Alex, Colin, Jordyn)

3. Summary of Findings
In this lab, the effects of plant photosynthesis were investigated by comparing the rates of photosynthesis of two plants, spinach and kale. The rate of photosynthesis was measured the number of leaf cutouts on the surface per minute. These floating leaf cutouts show that oxygen, a product of photosynthesis is produced. We found that the rate of photosynthesis for the spinach leaves was 8.6 cutouts per minutes, 1.4 less than that of the kale leaves (10 cutouts per minute.) This difference could be a result the different amounts of light absorbing chlorophyll present in each leaf, or a difference in vascular tissue sizes, which may affect the plant’s ability to absorb water for photosynthesis.

4. Meghana Yellanki, Tejus Kayiti, Jess Pazienza, and Anna Hatke
Photosynthesis Lab
Meghana Yellanki, Tejus Kayiti, Jess Pazienza, and Anna Hatke
F Block AP Biology

5. Photosynthetic Rate in Spinach vs Mustard Leaves
Comparing Rates of Photosynthesis
Mustard Leaf Data (Experimental)
Spinach Leaf Data (Control)
(200 Watt Bulb)
Time (sec.)
# of disks floating 30 2 60 6 70
10 (all floating)
Time (sec.)
# of disks floating 1 30 2 60 3 90 8
120 10
150 13
180 14
210
15 (all floating)
Rate of Photosynthesis (Floats per second)
Organism
Average rate (Mustard leaf): 10 floats/70 sec. = 0.14 floats/sec.
Average rate (Spinach leaf): 15 floats/210 sec. = floats/sec.
The average photosynthetic rate of the Mustard leaves was two times higher than the rate of the Spinach leaves. This means that Mustard leaves perform photosynthesis twice as fast as Spinach.
Only 10 mustard leaf disks were tested compared to 15 spinach leaf disks in the control.

6. Rate of Photosynthesis Lab:
Both arugula and spinach leaves have a rate of photosynthesis of 20% disks floating / min, or 2 leaves floating / min.
From 0-2 min arugula has faster rate of photosynthesis, but spinach has the fastest rate between 2-3 min and continues to have a greater percentage of leaves floating until 5 min, at which point both have 100% of leaf chads floating.
Dani Brake, Julia Waszak, Lauren Canha, Nicole Bardasz
Wattage of bulb: 100 watts
-In this lab, photosynthesis was measured by the production of oxygen, which caused the leaves to float

7. By Evan, Akhi, Sam, and Jaymin
Photosynthesis Lab
By Evan, Akhi, Sam, and Jaymin

8. Photosynthesis Lab: Time (sec)
Hypothesis: If the photosynthetic rates of romaine lettuce and spinach were compared, spinach will show a higher rate of photosynthesis
Table 1: Leaflets Rising
Percentage of Leaflets Rising Over Time
Time (sec)
Spinach (number of leaflets rising out of 12) and (percentage out of 12)
Lettuce (number of leaflets rising out of 5) and (percentage of 5) 30
1 (8.33%) 60
2 (16.66%) 90
5 (41.66%)
2 (40%)
120
7 (58.33%)
5 (100%)
150
10 (83.33%) -
180
11 (91.66%)
210
12 (100%)
Percentage of Leaflets Rising
Time
Conclusion: In conclusion, the lettuce took slightly longer to begin photosynthesis,but when it started, the rate of photosynthesis in lettuce appears greater than that of spinach (slope of lettuce line is 10/9 vs 10/21 for spinach). These findings disprove our original hypothesis that spinach would have a higher rate of photosynthesis than romaine lettuce. This lab can be related to class because the fact that photosynthesis produces oxygen was the basis of this experiment. As photosynthesis produced oxygen, it was trapped in the plant, causing the leaflets to rise. In order to improve this experiment, we could mainly run more trials with the lettuce to get a more accurate photosynthetic rate and also use an equal number of leaflets per group (overlapping of leaflets can affect photosynthetic rates so the higher number of leaflets in the spinach groups could result in overlapping, reducing the photosynthetic rate).

9. Katherine, Katie, Marissa, Shiva
Hypothesis: Forsythia leaves will have a slower rate of photosynthesis because the leaves are darker.
We found that Forsythia leaves have a slower rate of photosynthesis as only 3 total disks were floating at the end of 600 seconds.
The Spinach leaves were all floating at 270 seconds.