Students will prepare broccoli seed pots and will also be provided with pre-grown potted plants with which to work. All pre-prepared plants will have been grown in the dark and will initially contain freshly emerged yellow leaves. Participants will also receive pre-prepared plants that will have undergone an additional one-day light incubation that have enabled the leaves to turn green. Seedlings will be removed from the pots and, using Vernier carbon dioxide and oxygen gas sensors, rates of respiration and photosynthesis will be calculated. Data will be collected, projected onto the board, and shared in a document. Brainstorming will ensue to generate hypotheses to test for further research, as in a course-based undergraduate research experience or CURE setting. Past experiments that have been suggested have included testing the effects of temperature, and/or various substances, such as melatonin, on the metabolic rates of the seedlings, or, looking for correlations of the seedlings’ metabolic rates with nutrients normally found in the seeds/plants through the Unites States Department of Agriculture (USDA) website. The final activity of the laboratory period will include testing additional types of sprouts that have been provided and that are available in health food stores (alfalfa and mung) to note any differences in respiratory/photosynthetic rates among additional plants. (Growing and sprouting methods will also be demonstrated.) A practical side of this laboratory is to entice students to think of sprouts and seedlings as providing nutrition.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
