Name: _____________________________ Date: ________________________

Student Exploration: Plants and Snails

Vocabulary: aerobic respiration, bromothymol blue (BTB), carbon dioxide-oxygen cycle,

indicator, interdependence, photosynthesis

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. What important gas do we take in when we breathe?

oxygen
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2. Why don’t we run out of the important gases that we need to stay alive?

because we have trees

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Gizmo Warm-up
In the Plants and Snails Gizmo, each of the test tubes
contains water and a small amount of bromothymol blue
(BTB). BTB is a chemical indicator. An indicator changes
color when the chemicals in the water change.

1. With the lights set to on, drag a snail into one test tube
and a plant into another. Press Play ( ). After 24
hours, what is the color of each tube?
One is a blue and the other is a yellow type of color
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2. Select Show oxygen and CO2 values. Place the O2/CO2 probe in each tube. The probe
shows the levels of two gases, oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2), in the tubes. We call
these amounts the gas levels.
Oxygen
A. When the water turns blue, which gas is most common? ______________________
Carbon
B. When the water turns yellow, which gas is most common? _____________________

There is a equal amount of carbon and oxygen

C. What does it tell you when the water is green? ______________________________
inside the test tubes
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 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A:
 Click Reset ( ).
Gases in and
 Clear all of the test tubes.
gases out
 Turn on Show oxygen and CO2 values.

Question: What gases do plants and animals take in and what do they give off?

1. Collect data: Use the Gizmo to learn what gases plants and animals take in and give off. Try
it in both light and dark. Record your results below. If you do more than five experiments,
write your extra results in your notebook or on separate sheets of paper.

What is in the tube Lights: on/off Results

Snail and Elodea Sprigs on The water is green and there are 5.5 ppm oxygen and 6.5 ppm of
carbon
snail on The snail has died and there is 1.8 ppm oxygen and 10.2
ppm of carbon
on
Elodea Sprigs There is 11.6 ppm oxygen and 0.4 ppm carbon and water is blue

2. Analyze: Study your data on gases given off by plants.

A. What gas do plants give off in the light? ___________________________________

oxygen

More carbon than oxygen

B. How about in the dark? ________________________________________________

3. Analyze: Study your data on gases given off by animals.

More carbon than oxygen (about 10.2 ppm carbon)

A. What gas do animals give off in the light? __________________________________

More carbon than oxygen

B. How about in the dark? ________________________________________________
They are basically the same for the animals
C. How do these results compare to your plant results? _________________________

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4. Infer: Describe the carbon dioxide-oxygen cycle by completing the sentences below:
o
Animals breathe in ________________ co2
and breathe out ________________.

co2
In sunlight, plants take in ________________ o
and release ________________.

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 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity B:  Click Reset.
 Clear all of the test tubes.
Interdependence
 Turn the light switch to on.
 Check Show oxygen and CO2 values.

Question: How do plants and animals depend on each other?

1. Observe: Put one sprig of Elodea and one snail in a test tube with the lights on. Click Play.

They are basically the same for the animals

A. Does the color of the water in the tube change? _____________________________

B. What happens to the O2 and CO2 levels? __________________________________

The oxygen goes to 5.7 ppm and the carbon levels go to 6.3 ppm
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2. Predict: Without using the Gizmo, predict what you think will happen to the gas levels in
each case listed below. (Leave the Actual result column blank for now.)

Tube Prediction
There will be a equal amount of carbon and Actual result
2 snails, 2 sprigs, Both the snails are alive and there
lights on is 6.2 ppm oxygen and 5.8 ppm
oxygen but more carbon than oxygen
carbon
1 snail, 2 sprigs, There will be more oxygen than carbon
lights on The snail is alive and the tube is blue
I feel like the snail will die and the The snail dies and there is 0.2 ppm
1 snail, 2 sprigs,
lights off plants will not make as much oxygen oxygen and 11.8ppm carbon

3. Run Gizmo: Now run the Gizmo to test your predictions. Record your findings in the table.

4. Generalize: Describe how plants and animals each contribute to the survival of the other.
(This type of cooperative relationship is called interdependence.)
In order for the snail to live the plants need light in order to make oxygen for the snail because without the light
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the plant gets the plant lives on but the snail dies
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5. Challenge: Simulate a 24-hour day (12 hours of light, 12 hours of dark). How many snails
and plants do you need to keep a stable environment? Explain any discoveries you make.

You would have to put the same amount of plants and animals you did in the last experiment we did and we
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would have to make sure we turn the lights on and off at the exact same time
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 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity C:  Click Reset.
The carbon-oxygen  Clear all of the test tubes.
balance  Turn the light switch to on.
 Check Show oxygen and CO2 values.

Question: How are the amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide related to each other?

1. Observe: Put two Elodea sprigs into a test tube. Put the O2/CO2 probe into the tube with the
Elodea. Click Play. As the Gizmo runs, Pause ( ) it a few times.

A. How do the oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) levels change over time?

The amount of oxygen just keeps growing over time until it cant anymore
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B. What is always true about the total amount of O2 and CO2 in the test tube?

The more plants and the less animals there are the more oxygen there will be
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The oxygen reaches its max and is a nice and healthy

C. What happens when the CO2 reaches zero? _______________________________
plant

2. Revise and repeat: Click Reset and run the experiment again, this time with the lights off.

CO2 The
The levels stay the same
A. How do the gas levels change? O2 _________________ levels stay the same
_________________

Both carbon and oxygen are 6.0 ppm

B. What is the total of O2 and CO2? _________________________________________

3. Revise and repeat: Click Reset. Remove the plants. Repeat the experiment with two snails.

A. How do the gas levels change? O2 _________________

Goes to 1.7 Goes to 10.3
CO2 _________________

Oxygen depletes to 1.7 ppm and carbon goes to 10.3 ppm

B. What is the total of O2 and CO2? _________________________________________

4. Challenge: In the process of photosynthesis, plants use carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O),
and light energy to produce a sugar (C6H12O6) and oxygen (O2). In the process of aerobic
respiration, animals and plants release energy from sugar and oxygen and produce carbon
dioxide and water. The chemical equations that describe these reactions look like this:

6CO2 + 6H2O + light  C6H12O6 + 6O2 C6H12O6 + 6O2  6CO2 + 6H2O + energy

How do these equations explain why the total amount of O 2 and CO2 remains the same?

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In both equations you can see the amount of carbon atoms there are which is six and the amount of hydrogen is
12, notice how the amount of the number is always split in a way, the numbers always add up to the same
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amount and always stays "balanced" One side never has more than the other because it always has the same
amount of molecules
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