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?
Plants produce oxygen.
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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?

The one with the snail is like a light yellow, and the one
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with a plant is blue.
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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.

A. When the water turns blue, which gas is most common? Oxygen
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B. When the water turns yellow, which gas is most common? Carbon Dioxide
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C. What does it tell you when the water is green?6______________________________

carbon 6 oxygen its even

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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

O2: 4.5
1 Plant Off
CO2: 7.5
O2: 1.8
1 snail Off
CO2:12.2
O2: 2.7
2 snail 1 plant on
CO2: 9.3
O2 11.1
2 plant 1 snail on
CO2 0.9
O2 0.6
4 plants off
CO2 11.4

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

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

B. How about in the dark? CO2

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

CO2
A. What gas do animals give off in the light? __________________________________

Oxygen
B. How about in the dark? ________________________________________________

C. How do these results compare to your plant results? _________________________

The plants give off oxygen in light while animals give off CO2 while in light and plants give
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CO2 in the dark while animals give oxygen in the dark

4. Infer: Describe the carbon dioxide-oxygen cycle by completing the sentences below:

oxygen
Animals breathe in ________________ Carbon Dioxide
and breathe out ________________.
CO2
In sunlight, plants take in ________________ and release Oxygen
________________.

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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.

The color does not change.

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

The oxygen goes down 0.3 while the carbon

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

dioxide goes up 0.3

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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 Actual result

2 snails, 2 sprigs, Carbon Dioxide: 6.6 Carbon Dioxide: 6.5
lights on Oxygen: 5.4 Oxygen: 5.5
1 snail, 2 sprigs, Carbon Dioxide: 1 Carbon Dioxide: 0.5
lights on Oxygen: 11 Oxygen: 11.5
1 snail, 2 sprigs, Carbon Dioxide: 9 Carbon Dioxide: 11.9
lights off Oxygen: 3 Oxygen: 0.1

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.)

Plants contribute by producing oxygen to let the animals breathe and live. The animals
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contribute the carbon dioxide for the Plants to live and produce oxygen.
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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.
2 snails, and 2 plants keep a decently stable environment. This is because they produce 5.9
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oxygen, and 5.1 carbon dioxide which isnt exactly stable but you can still live in it.
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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 oxygen goes up quickly while the carbon dioxide goes down quickly.
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B. What is always true about the total amount of O2 and CO2 in the test tube?

The oxygen will always be higher than the carbon dioxide.

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C. What happens when the CO2 reaches zero? The color turns blue.
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2. Revise and repeat: Click Reset and run the experiment again, this time with the lights off.
3.5 8.5
A. How do the gas levels change? O2 _________________ CO2 _________________

B. What is the total of O2 and CO2? 12

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3. Revise and repeat: Click Reset. Remove the plants. Repeat the experiment with two snails.
1.7
A. How do the gas levels change? O2 _________________ CO2 10.3
_________________

B. What is the total of O2 and CO2? 12

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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?
These equations explain why the total amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide stay the same
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because all of materials are all the same. Light and energy are the same. So both of those
equations are the same just in different order. None of them create anything or destroy anything,
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only changing. This also relates to The Law of Conservation Of Mass
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