H O W D O E S L E A F S U R FA C E A R E A A F F E C T T H E

M O V E M E N T O F W AT E R T H R O U G H A P L A N T ?

T R A N S P I R AT I O N
BIOLOGY 11
CORE COMPETENCIES

•Critical Thinking:

•Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic

•Evaluating your methods, identifying sources of error or uncertainty and possible alternative
explanations.

•Creative Thinking: Collaboratively plan, select and use the appropriate investigation methods to
collect reliable data

•Communication: communicating your thinking with each other, listening actively, collaborating
(building equally on each other’s ideas), communicating your understanding of a topic and your process
back to the teacher.

•Personal & Social: Cooperatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
HELPFUL HINTS

• Carefully remove the seedlings from the test tubes. Their roots are very
delicate.

• Carefully measure and record water levels

• Surface Area: total area of the leaf exposed. Do not include stems,
petioles, or buds.
HOW DO I DETERMINE
L E A F S U R FA C E A R E A ?
• Trace leaves on grid paper

• Determine the area of one grid

square

• Determine number of whole squares

in the leaf (marked in red)

• Squares partially in the leaf were

added up and divided by 2 since part
of the surface was included within the
square.
HOW DO I DETERMINE
L E A F S U R FA C E A R E A ?
• Cut leaves off (not stems) off the plant
and determine their mass

• Estimate the Toal leaf SA in square

centimetres by cutting out a section
of leaf 5cm x 5cm

• Determine mass of this leaf section

and divide by 25 cm2

• Divide total mass of leaves by the

mass of 1 cm2 to find the total
Increased surface Increased surface
area results in area results in
increased decreased
transpiration transpiration
 Let’s talk a little about the big
ideas underlying this investigation
What is happening here?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transpiration_Overview.svg
How does this relate to our investigation?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transpiration_Overview.svg
What do we see here?
How does this relate to our investigation?
Why is calculating the transpiration rate
useful when we are making
comparisons?
 What do you think are the most
important core ideas or
crosscutting concepts that we used
during this investigation to help us
make sense of what we observed?
Now let’s talk a little about the way you
planned and carried out your
investigation
What were some strengths of the way
you planned or carried out your
investigation?

(What made it scientific?)

 What were some weaknesses of the
way you planned and carried out your
investigation?

(What made it less scientific?)

What rules should we make in
order to ensure that our next
investigation is scientific?
You are now going to write
your investigation report