Method

  • First place a test tube 10cm away from and LED lamp
  • Then fill the test tube with sodium hydrogen carbonate solution (which releases carbon dioxide)
  • Put a piece of pondweed into the boiling tube with the cut end at the top
  • Leave 5 minutes to acclimatise
  • Start a stopwatch and count the number of oxygen bubbles produced in one minute
  • Repeat and take a mean
  • Do the whole experiment with varying distances of the test tube from the lamp For more accurate method:
  • Use an upside funnel over the pondweed, which goes into a measuring cylinder to measure volume of oxygen produced

Rate of photo synthesis is inversely proportional to distance - this is called Inverse square law