How did oxygen generation by Elodea vary in dark and light conditions?
This assignment requires you to evaluate a hypothesis and communicate the results of your
experiment O2 generation by Elodea under different conditions. The questions below are meant to
guide you to reporting the key findings of your experiment and help you think through how to
explain the findings and draw conclusions from them in a scientific manner. Because you’ve
already had an opportunity to practice these skills once, this assignment is worth 16 points.
ASSIGNMENT: Please respond to the following questions to complete your laboratory write up. For this
assignment you will only focus on O2 generation experiment. Make sure that your write up is accurate, and
clearly written so that it is easily readable.
A grading rubric is provided on the second page of this assignment. To earn full points on your write up,
you must provide answers that align to the “meets” column of your grading rubric as well as meeting all
“Quality of Writing and Mechanics” elements described in the rubric. There are also some tips on pages 3-4
of this assignment to help you succeed.
FORMAT:
• Type your responses, using 1.5 or double spacing.
• Include the section headings (Hypothesis, Results, Analysis) and question number (example: 1, 2, 3,
etc) in your answers but do not rewrite the question.
• Graphs may be made with a computer program (example: Microsoft excel, Mac numbers, etc) or may
be neatly produced with a ruler on graphing paper.
• Print out the cover sheet on page 2 of this assignment, read and sign the academic honesty statement,
and submit it with your write up. Your instructor WILL NOT accept a write up without the signed cover
sheet.
DUE DATE: Your write up is due at the beginning of class next week. Late assignments will have 1 point
deducted per day up to 5 days, at which point the assignment will be assigned 0 points.
Hypothesis and Prediction – Part 1 of Rubric
1. What did you think was going to happen in this experiment and why? You may find it helpful to state your
answers to these questions as an “if-then” hypothesis-prediction. Be sure you have included a biological
rationale that explains WHY you made this hypothesis/prediction. Think about what is required for and
what is produced by the process of photosynthesis.
Results – Part 2 of Rubric
2. How much O2 was generated by Elodea in dark and in light conditions? Answer this question by creating
a bar graph that shows the results of your experiment. If you need assistance building a graph, there is a
Guide to Graphing resource available on your Moodle lab course site.
Analysis- Part 3 of Rubric
3. Explain why you think that the results shown in your graph support or refute your hypothesis (remember
we never “prove” anything in science). Consider all your data and the overall data pattern as you answer
this question. Don’t ignore unusual data that may not seem to fit into a specific patterns (“outliers”).
Explain what you think might be behind these unusual data points.
4. What is the biological significance of your results? What biological concepts explain completely why these
events happened in the experiment? How do these results help you understand the process of
photosynthesis? Think about giving a specific example.
References- Mechanics Checklist
5. Provide at least one full citation (make sure you include an in-text citation that pinpoints where you used
this resource) for a resource you made use of in performing the experiment, understanding the concepts
and writing this assignment. (Perhaps your lab manual? Your textbook? A website?) If you used more
than one resource, you need to cite each one! If you need help with citations, a Guide to Citing References
is available on your Moodle lab course site.