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Pinto Beans Lab

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Overview/Objective
Cells require energy in the form of ATP to resume the activities of metabolism. Cellular respiration breaks down the food molecules, such as glucose, that a person has consumed to produce the source of energy through ATP. Reactants of cellular respiration are glucose and oxygen and the products are carbon dioxide, water and ATP. In plants, the energy produced by cellular respiration allows the plant to continue to grow. For the beans in the experiment, the germinating process does not need sunlight, but merely warmth. The process of cellular respiration provides energy for living organisms to function and maintain life possessing a major importance for living organisms. In this lab, the comprehensive aspect comes from the …show more content…

Procedure
1. Obtain 7 test tubes and stoppers from the instructor. Label each vial L1, L2, L3, D1, D2, D3 and N1.
2. Cut 7 cotton balls in half and place each wad in the bottom of each vial by using the wooden stick to push it down. Use the dropper to soak the cotton with 15% potassium hydroxide (KOH) without getting the sides wet. Place the other piece of cotton on top of the soaked wad.
3. Count 5 light and dark germinating pinto beans for each germination period and place each onto separate weighing dishes. Compare the weight for each light and dark germinating pinto beans and add less or more to equal the weight to each other.
4. Add the 12 hours light germinating pinto beans in L1, 24 hours light germinating pinto beans in L2 and so on. Follow the table and place each light and dark beans in the correct vials. For vial N1, estimate the number of glass beads to add, so that the volume is similar to the other …show more content…

Put room temperature water into the tray up to the marked line inside. Place a ruler across the width of the water bath and insert the respirometers so that the pipets rest on the ruler. If the vials float on top of the water bath, place a heavy object that would allow the tubes to fully submerge into the water.
7. Wait 5 minutes for the respirometer to change into a similar temperature as the room temperature water. Measure the temperature using a thermometer and record, as the temperature can affect the amount of gas consumption.
8. After 5 minutes, take the ruler off of the tray and submerge the vials into the water and weight them down.
9. Record the water level for each pipet at 0 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and 20 minutes. (Each mark on the pipet is equivalent to 0.01ml.)
10. Calculate the distance moved from the 0 minute point in ml and record the results.
11. If there were any movements in vial 7 (vial N1), then record the number in the Correction column in the table and subtract the number from the distance moved at the last 20 minutes for the other vials to calculate the Corrected Net Change.
12. For the rate of oxygen consumption in each vial, divide the Corrected Net Change by 20 minutes and

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