Week Five- Instant Nail Polish with Spinach Leaves

 

What question are we investigating?

For the fifth week of Science Methods I, we would continue to discuss the question: “How do plants get their mass?”. We did this through being in small groups to put clear instant nail polish onto spinach leaves. After this we would talk in whole groups about questions over plants more and what they need to be able to grow.

What did we do in lab to investigate this question?

The teacher started this lab by discussing the previous things we had talked about as a whole group that we felt needed to help a plant grow. An example of this can be the different atoms like water or carbon dioxide. Eventually, she would explain about the lab by painting spinach leaves to look at the different structures more of a plant through a microscope. This would help my small group to think more about the mass of the plant in the jar and think if it would stay the same or increase in mass. We would discuss feeling that the mass would increase with the plant being in the jar. Then the teacher would ask to return to whole groups and we would create statements for believing why the plant mass would stay the same or increase. 

What did we figure out?

Towards the end of class she would make us as a whole group watch a video over the process of what individuals thought plants were mainly made of. This would surprise me how much of the mass of a tree is just air and some of the responses of individuals in the video. We also would continue to understand what photosynthesis and respiration is after watching this video. It made me see how these two processes are important. This would help me to understand how human beings and plants help each other out by doing these two concepts.

What are new or remaining questions after the investigation? 

This lab taught me how to explain these concepts like photosynthesis and respiration to a younger group of people like my future students. This could be shown through breaking down the processes into separate parts to be able to see it in a simpler way. This could allow the students to get basic concepts of science and help them in their future classes. It also will allow them to think of critical questions to ask when they are doing a lab like thinking of how the mass would change in the jar.