Research Question : We only add water and soil to a growing plant, where does plant mass come from? First we will investigate water , then we will investigate the soil .

BIOLOGY Cell Biology 1. f. students know usable energy is captured from sunlight by chloroplasts and is stored through the synthesis of sugar from carbon dioxide .

Weigh and record the mass of each cup daily.

Add the same amount of soil to 5th cup

Measure and add just enough water to moisten the soil

The results were therefore inconclusive as to whether or not plant mass comes from water. It appears that water does not influence plant mass increase over the short term of growth.

The average mass lost from all of the plants was 35.8 grams in 8 days.

Total mass lost from the control cup was 11.6 grams in 8 days.

The control (Cup #5) indicates that the water lost from the soil through evaporation was much less than the water lost by the plants through transpiration.

The inability to measure how much water that was lost by the plant through transpiration is a problem beyond the scope of this experiment.

The mass of water being lost by the plant through transpiration was faster than the mass that was being gained by the plants through growth.

The total amount of water added over 8 days was 80 grams.

From the above graph of the data, one can see that all of the plants lost mass even as 10 milliliters (or grams) of water were added daily.

What does the Data indicate? What was not being controlled?