Photosynthesis: Using the Sun to Make Food

Summary
An introduction to the process of photosynthesis including the raw materials, products made and plant parts involved.

Objectives
• Students will distinguish how plants as autotrophs are different from organisms that must eat to live.

• Students will be able to name the substances required for photosynthesis to happen.

• Students will relate plants? use of carbon dioxide to human breathing.

• Students will know the parts of a plant and plant cell that are involved in photosynthesis.

• Students will recognize that plants may either use the sugar that is made or store it in various forms.

Suggested Grades
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade

Excerpt
Imagine if you could lie out in the sun and soak up all the energy you need to run, play, jump, and live! As humans, we may get a sunburn, but we cannot be energized by the sun?s rays. We have to eat to fuel our bodies. Plants are different. They can use the sun?s energy to make their own food. This is not the same as buying food at the store and cooking it yourself! Plants actually do a chemical reaction inside of their cells to make food using the energy they get from the sun. Organisms with this ability are called autotrophs. Plants can change energy from the sun into chemical energy that they use to live and grow. Organisms that have to eat to live (like humans) rely on plants as a food source.

The process by which plants convert energy from the sun into sugar is called photosynthesis. In order to do this, there are a few things that plants must have: sun, water, and carbon dioxide.

Continued...