In order to grow, a seed needs energy but a plant needs to sprout leaves before it can do photosynthesis. Until then it gets energy the same way that humans do, from taking in oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. The only way we could prove this was to put some seeds into a container and attach tube with measuring marks on it. The seeds take in oxygen so the the water should be going further inside the tube because it has to fill the space where the oxygen was. The thing is carbon dioxide is released at the same rate so the it takes up the space instead of the water so we used KOH and put it in the container because it turns the carbon dioxide into a solid so that it couldn't take up the space of the oxygen so that the water would have to. To make it easier to see, we added food coloring so that we could see the water going into the tube. Our conclusion was that peas take in oxygen to take in energy. The evidence is above, it is hard to tell but in the picture on the right, the water is further inside the tube, it was taken about five minutes after the picture on the left.
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ReflectionAuthorBryce Tenney
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