Carbon Dioxide and Living Organisms

Procedure:  Take some BTB solution, record the color, bubble your breath through the solution, and record the results.

What is the color at the start of the experiment?

What is the color at the end of the bubbling?

What caused the BTB to change color?

What is the gas that humans exhale that causes the BTB to change colors?

What do you think would happen if the bubbled BTB solution stood over night>

What experiment could you do to prove that the carbon dioxide left the BTB solution, if in fact it leaves the solution?  Make sure that your experiment will convince someone that might say that the BTB in the solution won’t work after a few hours and that caused the color change.  Does this mean you a need a control?

Procedure:

Results: (what did you observe over night?)

Conclusions: (What caused this to happen that you didn’t see?)

Plan an experiment to find some carbon dioxide gas.  You can prove you found it by testing it with the ………..

Hypothesis:  There is carbon dioxide in ……….. (Hint: sopeloptopzoperop or sopodopa popopop)

Procedure:

Results:

Conclusions:

Two students, Mary and Carl, disagreed over what caused the BTB solution to change back to blue over night.  Mary thought that the carbon dioxide left the solution and Carl thought that oxygen or air entered the solution.  They both agreed to set up an experiment to prove what happened so they could prove who was right.  They agreed to take a soda pop, put a stopper in the top with a tube for the carbon dioxide to travel through, and insert it into BTB.  Next they took a plastic bad and closed the BTB solution inside the bag by tying the top with string.  They then took another solution and repeated the same thing, only they changed the color of the BTB.  They both recorded their predictions on a piece of paper for both the yellow solution and the blue.  Neither wanted to show the other what they had predicted until the next day, because they each thought that the other would copy.  What do you think each wrote on their paper?

Mary:              for Blue                       for Yellow

Carl:                for Blue                       for Yellow

Why did you put the answers that you did?

Diagram what each would think about the flow of carbon dioxide.

How would you convince someone that Mary or Carl was right?

What gas do you think snails give off as a waste?

Hypothesis:

Equipment: BTB, vial to put snails in with a lid, snail, vial to use as control, and water from where the snails are now living.

Think about what color of BTB you want to put the snail in.

This depends on your hypothesis.

Procedure:

Predictions and results:

Original color of the experimental:

Original color of the control:

Predicted results:

Color of the experimental:

Color of the control:

Actual results:

Color of the experimental:

Color of the control:

Conclusions:

Develop experiments to see if water plants give off carbon dioxide or use carbon dioxide in the light or in the dark.  Before you decide e what color to put in the vials think through the experiment carefully so you don’t get tricked.

Water Plants in the Light

Hypothesis:

Equipment:

Procedure:

Results:

Conclusions:

Water Plants in the Light

Hypothesis:

Equipment:

Procedure:

Results:

Conclusions:

Hypothesis: Fish

Equipment: Gas chamber, seltzer tablet, BTB, fish, and pond water.

Procedure: Take some of the water from the container that the fish is in now and put it in the gas chamber.  Use the gas chamber and the seltzer tablet to bubble carbon dioxide into the water.  Place the fish into the water and watch what happens.  When you think the fish has had enough place it back in the fish tank and save the water.  Take the water and put 2-3 drops of BTB into it and see what happens.

Results:

Conclusions:

Hypothesis:  Decomposers produce

Equipment: Five cups, fish food pellets, water, and BTB

Procedure:  Take the five cups and put equal amounts of water in each (50 ml) and distribute 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 fish pellets in the 5 cups.  Cover the cups with the plastic wrap and place them aside for about a week.  When the week is over open the cups and put 3-4 drops of BTB in each.  Record the results.

Results:

Conclusions:

If decomposers produce carbon dioxide and plants use carbon dioxide what will be the effect when they are both in the same environment?   The algae will reproduce and some will dye and be decomposed by decomposers.  This will cause the amount of carbon dioxide to change in the water.  The plants will use the carbon dioxide, but will the balance be changed as the amount of fertilizer is changed?

Hypothesis:

Equipment: Algae, fertilizer pellets, water, cups, plastic wrap, and a light source.

Procedure: Stir up the algae water so that the algae are equally distributed throughout the container.  Then put equal amounts of algae water into five cups.  Distribute amount of 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 fertilizer pellets among the cups.  Cover with plastic wrap, place under the light source, and stir daily for two weeks.  After the two weeks are over put an equal amount (3-4 drops) of BTB in each container and record the results.

Hypothesis: If fertilizer is put into or onto soil it will not stay in one place, but will move by water erosion.

Equipment: container will soil, fertilizer, BTB, and soil samples.

Procedure:  Take the container with soil and add fertilizer.  You may want to place the fertilizer at one end and tilt the container so that it is slanting. Map where you have placed the fertilizer and the amounts.  Water the container every day or so for a week or two.  At the end of the time take a soil sample and test it to see if the fertilizer has moved.  You may test the fertilizer with BTB by taking a vial and putting about a teaspoonful of soil in it.  Then take and fill the vial half or three fourth full with water.  Add 5 drops of BTB, stir, set aside and let it settle.  You should take as many soil samples as you need until you can see if there is a pattern to the flow of the fertilizer.  You could make a map of the container and color the map according to the way the soil tested.

Record the results and write a conclusion.

Results:

A student tried the following experiment.  She took a cricket and placed it in a vial over night.  The vial was made with a hole in the lid and had an eye dropper with some BTB in the dropper.  The vial was sealed so there was no exchange of gases.  The next morning when she returned she squeezed the eye dropper and the BTB flowed into the vial with the cricket.  What would you expect the results to be?  Please explain your answer.

One spring after a winter of much snow and ice Mr. Tipton discovered that the fish and plants in his fish pond were all dead and gone.  Mr. Tipton wondered what happened and discussed it with several friends.  The next winter after every snow storm Mr. Tipton could be seen out on his fish pond shoveling snow off the ice.  When spring came around Mr. Tipton found that there was still fish and plants alive in his pond.  Why do you think Mr. Tipton decided to remove the snow from the pond?  Please explain your answer.

Years ago doctors ordered all plants in the hospital rooms of patients removed at night.  The doctors believed that the plants poisoned the air at night time.  In the morning the plants were returned.  What do you know about plants that might have caused the belief?  Please explain your answer.