Photosynthesis Lab

[Feist]

So for my photosynthesis lab I was thinking of measuring the affect that the concentration of chlorophyll has on plant growth. Liquid chlorophyll is up for sale because it's apparently a really good natural health remedy so I was thinking of putting that into the water or something. Is this a good idea?

Otherwise, I was thinking of just doing concentration of salt in water in the Elodea plants, but will that score me good marks? It's one of the most generic topics I think.

Thanks.

[sweetnsimple786]

I wouldn't go out and buy something. It doesn't really matter if your experiment is original or not. What matters is if you've carried it out reasonably and written it up well. Plus there are other factors that affect the rate of photosynthesis. Humidity, wind, sunlight, temperature. But feel free to go with the salt one. =)

[Sandwich]

There are no penalties for doing a generic topic, provided it makes scientific sense and the write-up is good.

Also I'm slightly clueless about the whole thing, but to me it makes no sense that plants would be able to take up chlorophyll from the ground or the water. I was always under the impression they make it themselves and as it wouldn't ever be found hanging around in nature, it doesn't make much sense to me that they should have a mechanism to extract it from H2O or the ground or anything like that and then carry it to the right spot in their leaves to use in Photosynthesis. Otherwise you'd think some plants would perhaps even have evolved to prey on other plants and nick their chlorophyll! Various things help them make chlorophyll, I'm sure, but unless you somehow give them a plant equivalent of IV chlorophyll, I'm not sure it would work -- and you do need to give scientific background etc. for what you do. Your experiment doesn't always have to have the outcome you predict (or indeed any outcome) but it's hard to score good marks with zero data because nothing's happened and then you get marks for data analysis. Not that I know for sure, of course! I'm just guessing it doesn't seem likely.

[godofib]

I would recommend doing effect of light intensity on photosynthesis (keep the light source at different distances from the plant and also a trial with no light source). I know this is a generic topic but you do not lose marks for doing generic/easy topics (And I am sure you can find more info. about your lab online as well).