BIG+IDEAS

BIG IDEAS

PHOTOSYNTHESIS: Photosynthesis is one of the main questions in this experiment. One of two questions for this experiment is does the amount of light shown on a plant affect how fast photosynthesis works, or how well it works. The process of photosynthesis happens in every plant cell. Every plant cell is an autotrophs, an autotroph is an organism that makes its own food. The plant cell makes its own food by converting light energy into chemical energy that provides that individual plant cell with energy to preform the necessary tasks. The process of photosynthesis begins in the chloroplast of a plant cell. There are multiple chloroplasts in every plant cell, but animal cells do not contain any chloroplasts because they are heterotrophs. Being a heterotroph means that you rely on other sources to get your food. So, once the water and light enter the chloroplasts they are gathered together, and at the same time carbon dioxide enters the chloroplast as well. The carbon dioxide is then sent over to the other side of the chloroplast to combine with the light and the water that had entered into the chloroplast previously. When the Carbon Dioxide is sent over it is called ADP. ADP is an energy strand of two proteins. Once they are all together they combine and are sent over to the calvin cycle, when they are being sent over the combination is called ATP. ATP is a strand of three proteins. ATP is basically how the chloroplast stores and releases energy. The only difference between ATP and ADP is that ADP has two instead of three proteins, the fact that ATP has 3 proteins gives it the ability to release energy. Once the ATP gets into the calvin cycle it is then transported to the rest of the cell.

PHOTO TROPISM: Phototropism is one major idea in our experiment. One of the questions that we are asking in this experiment is if a plant can find its way through a maze to the light. Phototropism is the direction a plant grows in response to the light source. Growth of a plant //towards// the light is a positive phototropism, while growth //away// from the light is a negative phototropism, or Skototropism. Now you might ask, how does Phototropism work? Well, Auxins are what enable this process to take place. Auxins are a certain type of plant hormones.

above you see a example of positive phototropism. you will notice how almost all of the plants are growing towards the light, and the one that is growing the farthest towards the light is the one closest to the sun. ;)