Planting Science - Projects: Herb Your Enthusiasm
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Herb Your Enthusiasm

Project by group sjalodesfall2018


Info

Explore With this research topic, one experiment tested starch in plants because plants make food during photosynthesis and the glucose not used is stored as starch in the tissues of the plant. This experiment can determine whether or not photosynthesis occurred by measuring carbohydrate production. By...
Research Question We want to study glucose levels in parsley leaves. We will be using iodine solution to find out where the glucose is stored in the leaf (stored as starch). We came up with this question with the help of Josh, our mentor, by combining our two possible ideas. We will be studying how the iodine...
Predictions If parsley plants are under blue, white, and green light, the plants will demonstrate the most starch (because more photosynthesis = more glucose) under blue, then white, then green and there will be little to no starch in the leaves in the darkness under the foil. This will be evidenced by color...
Experimental Design Materials: • Safety goggles • Hot plates • Hot water bath • Gloves • Beakers • Thermometer • Aprons • 70% Isopropyl Alcohol • Water • 3 Parsley Plants • Aluminum Foil • Tweezers • Iodine • White light bulb • Blue light bulb • Green light bulb • Lamps...
Conclusion Data and Results: Monday, 11/6/18 (72 hours after starting photosynthesis): Different Wavelengths of Lights Effects on Percentage of Leaves Showing Starch Presence Type of light: White w/o foil: White w/ foil: Blue w/o foil: Blue w/ foil: Green w/o foil: Green w/ foil: Presence of Starch...
About this Project

These four students were persistent in trying to collect evidence for all reactants and products of photosynthesis. They felt like the leaf disk activity did a great job of showing that CO2, light and water are needed and that oxygen is produced. They wanted to concentrate on glucose as a...

Updates

Get to know your team’s scientist mentor, who will encourage and guide you through the scientific process of discovery. The more you share your ideas and research info, the more your mentor can help. You may also hear from a scientist mentor liaison who will be helping all the teams in your class.
PlantingScience Staff
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PlantingScience Staff
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PlantingScience Staff
said
Farewell and Best Wishes
As this research project is now in the final stages of wrapping-up, we wish to thank everyone who participated in this inquiry; the students, mentors, teachers and others behind the scenes. We appreciate all of your efforts and contributions to this online learning community.

Scientific exploration is a process of discovery that can be fun! There are many unanswered questions about plants just waiting for new scientists to consider, investigate, and share.

Please come back and visit the PlantingScience Project Gallery anytime to view this project in the future. You can search the Gallery by key word, team name, topic, or school name.

Good bye for now.
Warm regards,
The PlantingScience team
PlantingScience Staff
said
Looks like you are in the final stages of your projects.
It’s great to see that teams from your school are wrapping up and posting conclusions. Enjoy the final stages of your project, and feel free to post any final comments or questions you have for your mentors.
Emily
said

Hey Josh,

So we already did what you recommended but we re-uploaded it because some of the numbers were off in the results. The number of leaves total, the number of leaves that show starch, and the percentage are all in the data table since you really can't see the data table or the graph in the project info, I recommend looking at the file upload

thanks!

    Josh Kraft
    said

    Hey everyone! I took a look at your report and was impressed. I have uploaded a version (ends with "JK comments) that has some suggestions. You do not need to make the changes if you do not want to, but take a look and see if you like any of them. You've done a great job with your experiment, hopefully you were able to develop an appreciation for plant sciences from your project. 

Josh Kraft
uploaded Herb your Enthusiasm final report JK comments.docx in project files
Rachel
updated Herb your Enthusiasm final report.docx in project files
Emily
said

Well the way I did it before was wrong so I am pretty sure this is how I am supposed to do it. Unfortunately, the data table and graph didn't really show up right / at all but I kept the file upload so you can look at that to see the table and graph. Again, thank you so much for your help!!

    Josh Kraft
    said

    Hey Emily,

    You guys did a great job!  I would recommend when reporting your results you not only give the percent of leaves with starch but also give the counts. For example, if 20% had starch I would report it as 20% (1/5 leaves). This way if you have sample sizes that aren't equal (maybe 5 in one group, 12 in the next group, then 6, etc...) it is easier to see the differences between percents that are similar in value. If that doesn't make sense let me know and I can re-explain it.

     

    Thanks!

    Josh

Emily
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Emily
said

Hey Josh, just uploaded the final report! I hope I did it right, I wasn't really sure how to upload so that is why it is so late but thank you so much for your help! We all think the experiment turned out great!

Emily
uploaded Herb your Enthusiasm final report.docx in project files
Josh Kraft
said

Hey everyone!

Just a reminder that when you go to upload documents to make sure that you are not including any last names on your reports.

 

Thanks!

Josh 

Marissa
said

Hello! Today in class we took notes in class on the photosynthesis, discussing chlorophyll as a photosynthetic pigment, light reactions, absorption of light, the Calvin cycle, etc. At the end of the day we finally got to run our full experiment! We boiled the leaves for two minutes in water that was roughly 80 degrees celsius. After two minutes in water, they were transferred into 70% isopropyl alcohol, which they remained in for one minute. They were removed, place on a paper towel, and we dropped the iodine solution onto them. It took a couple minutes, but slowly the leaves placed in the light began to turn purple, while the covered leaves stayed green. Our hypothesis was correct! Yay! We believed that starch would be present in the uncovered leaves, as they were doing photosynthesis, while the covered leaves were not. This was true, but we predicted the plants under blue lights to have the most glucose (because plants take in mostly BIV waves), but the white light prevailed. The plants under the white light, uncovered, showed the most starch of all our plants. Blue came in second, while green essentially had no starch. We are very excited that we finally got our experiment to work with only a few bumps in the road. We couldn't have done it without your help, so thank you so much! Also, I will add some pictures in case you would like to see how it turned out. 

    Josh Kraft
    said

    Hey Marissa, 

    I am glad to hear the project worked! Does anyone have any ideas why white light would produce more starch than blue light? To answer this we need to remember that both red AND blue light drive photosynthesis the best, in fact red light is "easier" for plants to use. 

    Given what you learned about photosynthesis, why do you think the plants under the green light made so little starch? 

    If you have any questions please let me know!

    Thanks,

    Josh 

Maggie
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Maggie
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Maggie
said

Hi JOSH! I am sorry I called you John; there was a technological mishap (aka my brain wasn't working). Our experiment went really well. Thank you for all your help. We found that white light produced the most starch instead of blue light, and we were able to collect data and make conclusions. Now, we are finishing up our formal lab report.

Marissa
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Marissa
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Emily
said

Hi Josh! In class on Friday, we boiled some parsley leaves from plants that were in the sun and stained them with iodine and we could see the starch!! Yay! We also set up our experiment - there was a bit of confusion but I think it is all figured out now. We now have only three plants total, one under each light (green, blue, and white) and there are some leaves on each plant covered with foil. We will collect data on Monday. I know someone took pictures of the setup, but I am not sure who; we can post them on Monday.

    Josh Kraft
    said

    Hey Emily! I am glad to hear you were able to see the starch! This is a relatively simple procedure but I think I have done it in 4 different classes during college. What differences are you expecting from the different lights? Any hypothesis on which plant will produce the most or least starch? Looking forward to hearing more about your results, keep up the great work!

    -Josh 

Emily
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Emily
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Maggie
said

John - we found that crushing the leaves and using iodine did not produce any starch and thus no results. We are going to try to boil. Would it be okay to use isopropyl alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol? We also are using green and blue lights instead of red and yellow. 

    Josh Kraft
    said

    Hey Maggie, Isopropyl should work, essentially we are trying to get rid of the chlorophyll in the leaf. Here is an article that explains the process and includes good pictures https://sciencing.com/remove-chlorophyll-leaves-5789711.html . I am not surprised that crushing the leaves didn't work, you probably ended up breaking the starch storage compartments and lost them when you soaked in alcohol. The steps will be 1)Killing the leaf (stops more photosynthesis) with boiling water 2)Removing chlorophyll  and color with alcohol 3) Staining with iodine to see the presence of starch. I think it should be fine to use whole plants instead of covering leaves with foil, just make sure you account for the time needed to look at your plants. If you have anymore questions please let me know!

    -Josh 

Maggie
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Maggie
said

Hi! Instead of boiling, we are crushing the parsley's leaves after they have been under the light (each in a different light) doing photosynthesis or lack thereof. We are not using foil but putting one in the complete dark in addition to the white, yellow, red, and black lights. 

 

Today, we tested the iodine to see if it will show starch presence or not on the parsley leaves. We also set up our experiment with the lights, and the plants will undergo photosynthesis. We will test for starch and make observations after 24 hours (Friday) and after 96 hours (Monday).

Marissa
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Marissa
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Marissa
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Marissa
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Marissa
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Josh Kraft
said

Hey everyone!

https://learning-center.homesciencetools.com/article/test-for-starch-photosynthesis/

check out that link for some information on performing an iodine stain. Double check with your teacher that you are able to get the supplies and she is ok with you running the experiment. It does involve boiling some liquids, including ethyl alcohol which is flammable.

Thanks!

Josh

Maggie
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Maggie
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Maggie
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Maggie
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Marissa
said

Experimental Design:

Our plan is to observe the amounts of starch in parsley leaves under different conditions of light. This includes adding iodine solution to the leaves and setting each plant under a different color or intensity of light. Our light choices are yellow, red, black, white, and no light. We will be using colored light bulbs. This will extend over two days, probably letting the iodine sit overnight before making our first observations. We will test how much starch is present in parsley leaves over a 48 hour period and within different variations of light. The parsley plant covered in the iodine solution will be the controlled variable. The independent variable will be the colors of light. The dependent variable will be starch levels in parsley leaves. We will record where the starch is present on the parts of the leaves. 

Marissa
said

Predictions: 

We expect that the plants will demonstrate the most starch (because more photosynthesis = more glucose) under red, then white, then black, then yellow, and then we will observe little starch in the leaves who rest in the darkness. Plants absorb mostly red and blue light rays. If the rays are red, then they will absorb most of this light. If there is no light or yellow light, they will not absorb much of the light. We are not entirely sure how black light will affect the plants, but we do know that UV rays will act differently on the plant, causing them to grow long and gangly. However, we are not sure how this type of light will affect starch. Plants produce glucose during photosynthesis and they proceed to store this as a starch in their leaves. We assume that more light/more absorption of light = more starch. 

Marissa
said

Research Question:

We want to study glucose levels in parsley leaves. We will be using iodine solution to find out where the glucose is stored in the leaf (stored as starch). We came up with this question with the help of Josh, our mentor, by combining our two possible ideas. We will be studying how the iodine solution reacts to the leaves in different colors of light. These include white light (controlled), red light, yellow light, black light, and no light. So far in this unit we have learned about which colors of light plants are more likely to absorb (red and blue mostly) and that they store the glucose the produce in photosynthesis in the form of starch within their leaves. 

Josh Kraft
said

Hey Everyone,

I think using the Parsley plant is a better idea than the spinach. I also think you would still be able to cover the parsley leaves with tin foil, it doesn't have to look nice you just want to block the leaf. You could even block just sections of the leaf using aluminum foil and tape. If you try this and it isn't working very well then you could probably use a whole plant. It will just be easier to only have to handle a few leaves vs. a whole plant.

So what are the predictions for how the different lights will impact starch production? I can tell you that red and blue light are the most important for driving photosynthesis, and that green is not used by (most) plants in photosynthesis. 

I would recommend filling out the research question, predictions, and experimental design portion of the project profile. It doesn't have to be done today, but the sooner you can get it done the better. 

I hope you are all excited about the progress you have made so far. It may not feel like you have done much but you're really moving forward. Some questions to still consider will be how long you will cover leaves for and how long the plants will be exposed to different lights. I would also suggest finding an iodine staining procedure and make sure you feel comfortable executing it. If you are having trouble finding a protocol for the iodine staining let me know and I can help. I would recommend a quick google search using this phrase "iodine to stain starch in leaves". 

Keep up the good work and as always, let me know if you have any questions!

-Josh

Marissa
uploaded IMG_0167.jpg in project files
    Marissa
    said

    These are the color lightbulbs that we plan on using. Our controlled variable will be white light and we will also have one with no light.

Maggie
said

John, thank you for all your thorough feedback! We love your idea and want to do this! We were thinking about using spinach leaves; do you think that will work? If not, would parsley suffice? 

    Marissa
    said

    Also, we were realizing that spinach leaves might not work seeing as they are detached from the plant. Therefore, we lean toward using parsley, except we worry about the logistics of covering the leaves. Maybe we could simply cover an entire plant? Let us know what you think!

Marissa
uploaded IMG_0166.jpg in project files
Josh Kraft
said

I have a suggestion that I think would be fairly easy and still interesting for you all to try. The idea would also allow you to incorporate a bit from both the glucose idea and the different colors of light idea. 

Plants often times don't store sugar as glucose but rather they store sugars as starch. This means you wouldn't be able to look for glucose specifically, but you could look for the presence of starch. A simple test to look for starch involves staining the leaves with iodine, the iodine reacts to the starch allowing you to see where in the leaf starch is stored (iodine stains will look bluish if starch is present, brownish if there is no starch). One thing you could try is to cover a part of the leaf with aluminum foil (prevents light from hitting the chloroplasts) and compare how iodine stains the covered portion vs. the uncovered portion. This is relatively simple and safe to perform in a classroom. Now to really make this interesting, you could also have leaves that you apply different color filters to, colors like red, blue, and green. You could then compare starch content in the leaves between the different filters. To really hedge your bets on getting interesting results I would suggest using an uncovered leaf, a leaf with aluminum foil covering parts, and then leaves with different colored filters, you should hopefully see differences in starch (therefore sugar) production in the different treatments. 

If you like this idea let me know and I can help you figure out the procedure you would use, and if you don't think it would be that interesting let me know and we can continue to brainstorm! 

Keep up the great work and let me know what questions you have!

-Josh

Emily
said

Hi! For class today, we brainstormed some ideas for what we could do for our experiment. Maggie posted a very brief list of our ideas so I will explain them some more.

In our first idea, we would measure glucose. We would have 6 leaves of spinach and they would all be in or have access to the same amount of water. Three of the leaves would be left in complete darkness and the other three would be left in the light. After a certain amount of time, we would grind up the leaves and measure the different levels of glucose in each set of leaves. We really have no idea if this will work but we think it would be interesting because we haven't measured glucose levels in plants in class.

In our second idea, we would test the effect of different colors of light on spinach leaves. I am not sure about the specifics of this idea so we are open to suggestions.

Again, these are just some basic ideas so if you have any other ideas or suggestions that would be great! 

Thank you!

Maggie
said

Possible ideas:

  • glucose - three leaves in light, three leaves in dark - see how much glucose
  • different colors of light

 

    Josh Kraft
    said

    Hey Maggie! One thing to consider with levels of glucose is how you would measure the levels of glucose. The different colors of light idea though....I think you are on to something there. How familiar is everyone with how light drives photosynthesis? There are certain wavelengths of light that are key for plants and then there are some wavelengths that plants can't/don't use. I won't spoil too much for you, a quick google search should give you some good resources. I would suggest looking at the work of Thomas Englemann, from 1883. His experiment is one of my absolute favorites, its ingenious and beautiful in its simplicity.

    -Josh 

Maggie
said

Hello! To response to Josh's questions from Monday, I believe Marissa meant germination because we were trying to see the radish's growth, and we have learned about germination as well as pollination. Also, for our conclusions, we think that the two that were placed in the light with water will best grow because both help plant growth, sunlight giving energy and water giving nutrients. The seedling with no light was abnormal looking because light is necessary for healthy growth. Also, we really enjoy learning and designing scientific investigations and experiments and are able to do them in class!

 

Today in class, we learned about mesophyll, where photosynthesis takes place, and related this to leaves. We discussed CO^2 and O^2 as well as gas moving through stomates and liquids through veins/vascular tissue. For most of class, we worked on our Planting Science project "Investigating Photosynthesis Using a Leaf Disk Floatation Method," where we punched 15 holes in spinach leaves; placed them in a syringe; inserted distilled water, water that was breathed into, or water with a very small amount of baking soda in it; and made a "vaccum" with the air in the syringe to make the spinach circles lay at the bottom. After, we dumped the spinach circles in their respective solutions under light and recorded how many floated versus how many did not float for 20 minutes. 

Josh Kraft
said

Photosynthesis is such a cool and important process for life on Earth! Did you enjoy learning how scientific investigations are designed? That is one of the harder topics in biology I think, working with living systems can be messy but when you work out the details it is really rewarding. If anyone has any questions about photosynthesis or designing experiments please feel free to post them!

Rachel
said

Class on Tuesday 10/23/2018

Today in class we got a handout for "Investigating Photosynthesis Using a Leaf Disk Floatation Method" guided investigation. The purpose of the guided investigation is to help us learn what plants need for photosynthesis and enhance our understanding of how scientific investigations are designed. 

Maggie
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Maggie
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Maggie
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