What would a person think of when they hear the word photosynthesis? "Photo" means light, whereas, "synthesis" means to put together. Sharon Hunter (1999) describes that photosynthesis occurs by leaves using sunlight, carbon dioxide from the air, and water brought up from the roots. The plant puts these ingredients together to make glucose, a kind of sugar that feeds the tree, and oxygen. Plants do not need the oxygen so they release it into the air. Boykin (2003) stated, "Trees sequester carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen. The average urban tree removes nearly a ton of the greenhouse gas during its first 40 years of life. One wooded acre provides enough oxygen for 18 people, and absorbs as much carbon dioxide a car produces in 26,000 miles." In this lab experiment, we monitored the light dependant reactions of photosynthesis in the chloroplasts by using the dye DCIP, which was used as a substitute for NADP- . We know that for photosynthesis to occur we must have three main ingredients light, water, and carbon dioxide (See Figure 1 and 2). According to Roberts (2000), photosynthesis causes plant growth and plants grow better with longer periods of light. Light intensity during the summer is greater due to the angle of the sun, which speeds up the rate of photosynthesis. Our research objective for this study was to determine which tubes would undergo photosynthesis and which ones would not. We would determine this by adding the necessary ingredients, taking away ingredients, and adding sarkosyl (detergent). From this information, we were able to form our hypothesis that Tube 1 has already undergone photosynthesis, Tube 2 and Tube 4 would undergo photosynthesis because it had all of the necessary ingredients, Tube 3 would not undergo photosynthesis because it had no chloroplast, Tube 5 would not undergo photosynthesis because it lacked light, and Tube 6 would not undergo photosynthesis because it contained sarkosyl, which would strip the chloroplast.
