Lab 7 - Photosynthesis

What are the two main goals for today’s lab?

• Confirm the importance of light in photosynthesis by measuring CO2 production.
  

• The second is to determine how light quality affects photosynthesis

Autographs

Organisms that generate their own nutritional energy

Heterographs

Organisms that consume nutritional energy through fat

Algae 

Photosynthetic eukaryotes that live in water 

Important in conducting CO2 research

Greenhouse gas 

Traps heat and warms the planet to cause droughts and floods  

Colorimetric Indicators 

pH colors that change based on Proton levels

Can be added to a solution to see how it changes in 

spectrophotometer

shines light and measures the amount
of light absorbed by the indicator

“Blank”

a reference solution that contains the

same components as a test solution, but lacks the molecule or organism being studied

What will students be doing in today’s lab? 

Students will work in groups of 4 – 5 to test how light affects photosynthesis using algae beads.
One subgroup will compare light and dark conditions, while the other subgroup compares light quality.
Data will be shared between subgroups to complete the cashout