Over the last week, Year 8 have been exploring the power of plants! By carefully adding a drop of iodine solution to it a leaf and keeping sections of it hidden from the sunlight you can explore how plants need the energy from the sun to power their photosynthesis reaction.
Iodine solution is used to test for the presence of starch in a leaf, which is an important component of photosynthesis. Starch is produced during the process of photosynthesis and stored in the plant's leaves as an energy reserve. Once the iodine solution was added we observed the leaf under the microscope. The iodine solution reacts with the starch in the leaf, causing it to turn dark blue or black. We were able to see the tiny starch granules in the cells of the leaf, which indicated that the leaf was actively photosynthesising.
Everyday magic!
