Today we “Turned on the Lights”

On one of the experiments.   A few days ago we covered a baby food jar with tin foil, placed damp paper towels and some radish seeds inside AND then did the same with a second jar minus the tin foil, then sealed the lids on both jars.  
Today we “turned on the lights” in the covered jar to compare the two sets of seedlings.  Ironically the covered jar’s seedlings were taller than the seedlings in the non-covered jar.  However, the covered seedlings were almost all white. WHY?  Anyone know?  Plants need light to make chlorophyll.  No light, no chlorophyll.  ;-)  If we had continued to attempt to grow this plant in the covered jar, we would have eventually lost the seedlings because no light=no chlorophyll=no sugar=no chemical energy=no radish=no LIFE.
This is an excerpt out of my teacher’s manual for this experiment:
“Light is essential to plant life.  Plants need light energy to photsynthesize-to strip hydrogen from water and combine it with carbon dioxide to produce sugar.  Once the food energy stored in the cotyledons is consumed , seedlings must produce additional sugar to fuel their vital functions.  No light energy, no chlorophyll, no sugar, no chemical energy, no radish, no life.”  TOPS  Learning Systems
After we finished examining our seedlings in the jars (each child has his/her own set), we removed the seedlings from the jars and planted them in the “greenhouse” we made yesterday, placing them in the corresponding circle.





After this portion of the experiment was completed we began an experiment on phototropism (turning toward the light).   Several days ago we made mini foil planters and labeled them 2A-2D.  2A-B are being used to experiment on over-crowding but the other two have been empty.  Today we filled 2D with four seeds.  We have to return in 6 days to check on growth.   Stay tuned!