Watch Chad Bop to the Top!

The Effect of Light Intensity on the Floating Abilities of

Spinach Leaf Chads

By: Alessandra, Vianna, Kimmy, and MaryKate

Question

What is the effect of light intensity on the

amount of leaf chads that will return to
their oxidized state?

Experimental Hypothesis

If there is a 120 watt light bulb then more

leaf chads will float to the top of the water
because there is more light for them to
photosynthesize.

Variables
Independent Variable: Light Intensity/Voltage
Dependent Variable: Amount of Oxidized Leaf
Chads
Constants: Size of beeker, distance from light, size
of buffer

Materials

60 watt light bulb, 120 watt light bulb, hole

puncher, spinach leaves, syringe, 2 tanks,
CO distilled water, 2 beakers, ruler

Procedure
1.Gather materials (60w light bulb, 120w light bulb, hole punch, spinach
leaves, syringe, 2 tanks, CO distilled water, 2 beakers, ruler)
2.Punch out 10 leaf chads per light from the spinach leaves (20 leaves
per trial)
3.Fill fishbowl with water
4.Plug in the light and attach it to the lab table. Angle it so the fish bowl
is directly 3 inches in front of the bulb
5.Add 100 mL of CO into the beaker

Procedure Continued
8. Push all the air out of the syringe and put your finger over the hole
9. Put syringe on the table and pull down
10. Tap to make leaf chads sink, if they dont all sink try again
11. Once all the leaves sink, open the syringe into the beaker (All the leaf
chads should be at the bottom)
12. Turn on the light
13. Record the number of leaf chads that float to the top after every
minute, for 15 minutes
14. Repeat for the second trial

Light
Intensi
ty
(Watts)

Number of Leaf Chads that Float to the Top After Every Minute (Up to 15
Minutes)

Data1 Table
1
2
3 Trial
4
5

10

11

12

13

14

15

The Effect that the Light Intensity (Watts) has on the Number of Leaf Chads
that Float to the Top After Every Minute (Up to 15 Minutes)
60w
120w

Light
Intensi
ty
(Watts)

Number of Leaf Chads that Float to the Top After Every Minute (Up to 15
Minutes)

Data1 Table
2
2
3 Trial
4
5

10

11

12

13

14

15

The Effect that the Light Intensity (Watts) has on the Number of Leaf Chads
that Float to the Top After Every Minute (Up to 15 Minutes)
60w
120w

Line Graph
Trial #1

Trial #2

Bar Graph
Trial #1

Trial #2

Conclusion
In this experiment, we were investigating the light intensity that caused the
most leaf chads to float to the top. We used a 60 watt light bulb and a 120 watt
light bulb. The 120 watt light bulb gives off double the amount of light. We used
10 leaf chads in each trial. When we conducted the experiment, we checked how
many leaf chads floated to the top every minute for a total of 15 minutes. We
hypothesized that the 120 watt light bulb would cause more leaf chads to float to
the top. We thought that since there would be a higher wattage light bulb that
would produce more light, there should be more leaf chads floating to the top.
However, this was not necessarily the case. The results of the experiment proved
that our hypothesis was mostly incorrect. This was because during the first trial,
at the end of 15 minutes, only one leaf chad floated to the top for each bulb.
During the second trial, at the end of the 15 minutes, only 6 leaf chads floated to
the top for each bulb. This shows that both light bulbs caused the same amount
of leaf chads to float to the top. Most of the time, the 60 watt light bulb was
actually ahead in making the leaf chads float to the top. We can conclude from
this experiment that both light bulbs made the same amount of leaf chads float
to the top.

Conclusion Continued
This experiment was conducted carefully, but there was still room for errors.
If we were to this experiment again, we would make sure that there is no water
underneath the beakers. This may have caused the light to reflect on the water
underneath the beaker and this would manipulate our results. For example, the
light might have just reflected the water instead of photosynthesizing the leaf
chads. This would cause us to lose light that could make the leaf chads float.
Another error that may have occurred was using wrong leaf chads. During our
first trial, the leaf chads came from the same spinach leaf. They were very light
which may have caused them to not absorb the light. The light may have just
went through them instead of absorbing it. During the second trial, we picked out
a darker spinach leaf and used the same leaf for each bulb. The darker leaf chads
gave us better results. This may have been because of the light that was
absorbed.
If we were to perform this experiment again, we would make sure to use the
same leaf for all trials, or we would pick leaves that are close in color. This would
make our results more accurate because almost the same amount of light would
be absorbed making the leaf chads photosynthesize. Also, we would try to use
leaves that we could get the most valuable results out of.

Conclusion Continued
For example, we might want to pick a leaf big enough for all trials so there would
be no question about the type of leaf. Another thing we will do differently, is try
to keep as much light contained as possible. We tried to separate the light that
the different light bulbs gave off so there would be no interference. We placed a
poster in between both experiments. Although, the 120 watt bulb was more
contained. I think we would have to equally isolate the lights so one would not be
more covered than the other.
The results of this experiment can help determine how different plants and
leaves photosynthesize in the real world. We obtained better results when we
used darker leaves, so this could make us conclude that plants with darker leaves
photosynthesize more. To really claim that this may be true, we would have to
advance our experiment, and test how different variations of leaf color affect how
they photosynthesize. This could be done by choosing a dark leaf, medium leaf,
and light leaf, testing in different experiments, both 120 watt and 60 watt light
bulbs.

Video Trial 1: 60w

Video Trial 1: 120w

Video Trial 2: 60w

Video Trial 2: 120w