Week 5 Reading and Schedule

For Week 5, please read:

  • Biology of Plants: Ch. 18, Ch. 30
  • College Physics: Ch 11, 12.7
  • Life of a Leaf: Ch. 3 – 6 (read as part of physics reading)

Week 5 Schedule:

  • 9 am, Tue. April 26. Sem 2 B1105: Botany Quiz; Botany Lecture.
  • 1 pm, Tue. April 26. No class meeting. Project Group Meetings with Lalita in Lab 1 1065 or Individual Check-In Meetings with Krishna in Lab 2 3255.
  • 9 am, Wed. April 27. Lab 1 2046: Physics Quiz; Physics Lecture.
  • 9 am, Thu. April 28. Lab 1 1040: Botany Lab; Physics Lab
  • 9 am, Fri. April 29. Sem 2 B1107: Physics Workshop (attempt all of Physics Problem Set 5 problems in your Problem Set Notebook before workshop); Weekly Wrap: Group Project Work and check-ins – bring relevant materials.

Week 5 Project Group Meetings and Individual Check-In Meetings

In Week 5, you’ll have Project Group Meetings with Lalita (Lab 1 1065, Tuesday afternoon) and Individual Check-In Meetings with Krishna (Lab 2 3255, Tuesday afternoon or Thursday during Lab).

Project Group Meetings:

  • Schedule
  • Bring:
    • All all relevant project work documentation
    • Your Lab Notebook

Individual Check-In Meetings::

Photosynthesis Lab

We noticed some difficulties in data collection for the photosynthesis lab:

  • Several groups used the DPIP/phosphate buffer for the background instead of just the phosphate buffer. This was a mistake in following the instructions, and we think it indicates a misunderstanding of what running a background reference is for. Please review this concept and ask any questions you have.
  • Other groups that seemed to have followed the protocols correctly only saw a decrease in UL absorbance between 0 minutes and 5 minutes, and the rest of the time the UL absorbance was basically constant. While we’re not sure of the reason for this, we suspect that perhaps the cuvettes were too close to the light, so the high intensity resulted in high photosynthesis, thus reducing all the DPIP very quickly (within the first 5 minutes).

Several groups did get data that seems useful. If your group’s data is suspect, clearly indicate that in your lab notebook along with some best guesses as to why. You may borrow data from a group that did obtain useful results, but make sure to credit that group clearly in your lab notebook.

We also took some data after lab ended. Here are the results we obtained, which you can use (if so, credit the data in your lab notebook to “instructors’ data”). We’ll discuss this data in class together when we get some time.

Instructors’ data:

time (min)

B UL UD
0 0.835 1.697 1.655
6 0.831 1.062 1.611
11 0.822 0.615 1.607
17 0.820 0.573 1.609
21 0.821 0.565 1.602

Week 4 Reading and Schedule

For Week 4, please read:

  • Biology of Plants: Ch. 7, Ch. 17
  • College Physics: Ch 24.3, 27
  • Life of a Leaf: Ch. 2 (read as part of physics reading)

Week 4 Schedule:

  • due by 5 pm, Mon. April 18 via your Group Project Blog: Project Proposal
  • due by 6 pm, Mon. April 18 via WebAssign: Physics Problem Set 3.
  • due by 9 am, Tue. April 18  in class: Project Forms
  • 9 am, Tue. April 19. Sem 2 B1105: Botany Quiz; Botany Lecture.
  • 12:30 pm, Tue. April 19. Plant Walk – meet at F Lot trail: bring field notebooks and dress for weather. On completion, meet in CAL West.
  • 9 am, Wed. April 20. Lab 1 2046: Physics Quiz; Physics Lecture.
  • 9 am, Thu. April 21. Lab 1 1040: Botany Lab; Physics Lab
  • 9 am, Fri. April 22. Sem 2 B1107: Physics Workshop (attempt all of Physics Problem Set 4 problems in your Problem Set Notebook before workshop); Weekly Wrap.