Lulia Abraha,

March 4th, 2015

The Effect of CO2 on Photosynthesis Rate

Photosynthesis is the process that plants use to synthesize their food.
In order for a plant to photosynthesize, it needs carbon dioxide, water, and
light energy. As a result, plants produce oxygen gas and glucose.
Photosynthesis occurs on the chloroplast cell of the plant. Chloroplast is
mainly found on the mesophyll tissue layer, which is found on the leaves.
This is the layer where the gases that are products and reactants of
photosynthesis assemble. The gases are what causes the leaf to float. If
carbon dioxide increases, the rate of photosynthesis will increase.
The materials that were used to do this lab are lamp, hole punch,
marker, timer, syringes, cups, spinach leaves, water, and baking soda/soap
solution. First step was to put enough solutions on both plastic caps. Then,
pull out the plungers from the syringes, punch out and put ten disks of
spinach in each syringe labeled as CO2 and H2O. Next replace the plunger,
and push it back until there is small air left. Then put 5ml of solution in the
syringes. Next, hold the syringe up, put your thumb over the opening of the
syringe while pulling the syringe back. Hold it for ten seconds and the
release it slowly without damaging the leaves. This step will create a vacuum
causing the leaf disks to sink. Repeat this step until all the leaf disks are no
longer floating. Put the rest 5ml of solution in the syringes, and then put it
under a light for 20 minutes. Check every 2 minutes to count how many leaf
disks are floating. Record the data and graph at the end.
The dependent variable is the photosynthesis rate per minutes. The
independent variables are water solution and baking soda/soap (carbon
dioxide) solution. The leaf disks from the spinach are constant variables
because they were used for all the samples. Each sample was only
experimented once. We only did one trial for this lab. The syringe with the

water solution was the control to check if the syringe with the CO2 worked or
not. In the graph, the purple line represent the photosynthesis rate that was
experimented with water. The red line represents the photosynthesis rate
that was experimented with the baking soda/soap (carbon dioxide). The
graph and the table show that there were no floating leaves at all within
twenty minutes, but the number of floating leaves in the baking soda/soap
solution started to increase while it was under the light for twenty minutes.
Carbon dioxide increased the rate of photosynthesis. During the
experiment, when we the syringes under the light, the leaves were
photosynthesizing. It used the carbon dioxide (baking soda/soap), water, and
the light energy to photosynthesize. As a result, it produces oxygen and
sugar. The oxygen gas in the chloroplast caused the leaves to float.