Cellular Respiration Lab

Purpose:   The purpose of our experiment was to see how germination and temperature effected cellular respiration. The independent variable for the experiment was the temperature and whether or not the seeds were germinated. The dependent variable was our seed which was corn. 

Introduction:     This experiment showed us that many factors can act on cellular respiration. Before we talk about the results of our experiment, we need to understand our experiment. One of our factors was germination. All germination means is when a seed begins to sprout and grow. This can be affected by the temperature, which we also tested. These things can affect cellular respiration because if the seed wasn't germinated, then it couldn't respire, because it's dormant. The cool temperature would affect it because the low temperature slows it down. 

Methods: We started with 25 dormant pieces of corn, 25 germinating and 25 glass beads as our control group. We placed them into a dry glass bottle and put a carbon dioxide detector on top. The detector measured the gas given off in each trial, and the data it picked up told us how much each group respirated.  

Graphs and Charts:

Data:

Discussion: 

In this experiment there was higher rate of respiration when the germinated corn in cold water was higher than the rate of germinated corn in room temperature. The rate of the cold water corn, 17 degrees Celsius, was 1.0006 ppm/s. The rate of the corn at room temperature,which was 22 degrees Celsius, was .92043 ppm/s. The rate of respiration for the corn that was non-germinated was .20413 ppm/s. This was also done at room temperature.when the temperature was lower and the seed was germinated it had the lowest. This can happen because when the concentration of ATP drops then the respiration speeds up, and when the concentration of ATP is up the respiration drops. When the water is colder is slows down the energy speeding up the rate, which is why the cold water produced a larger rate. This also explains while the non-germinated seeds had a smaller rate, there was energy stored in the corn so the respiration was lower. With the control graph, the graph showed that there was respiration. There was glass beads in the container so there was no respiration, but because we didn't waft the CO2 enough it made the detector seem like there was CO2 in it.

Conclusion: Looking at our data would imply that the corn had a higher rate of respiration in cold water than at room temperature. The glass beads, though not perfect, stayed close to a rate of zero, but this fluctuation is almost certainly due to an error in experimentation. Non germinated corn respirated the slowest, then room temperature corn followed by corn germinating in cold water, which has the highest rate of respiration. 

References:  

Reece, Jane B. Campbell Biology. San Francisco: Pearson Benjamin Cummings, 2011. Print

"Plants In Motion." Plants In Motion. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.