Photosynthesis

Discover how plants make food using sunlight! Learn about photosynthesis and its vital role.

Read this text about photosynthesis! Living things like plants, animals, and people need energy to survive and grow. People eat food for energy, but most plants use energy that they get from sunlight. When you look at plants such as a tree, flower, or grass, what do you see? You might notice their stems, trunks, branches, leaves, roots, or flowers, but how do they grow? What are they made from? How did the plant make those parts?Life is a puzzle in many ways. People don't always agree on how life started or why it exists. Yet, a simple way of thinking about how plants grow is to think of the plant itself as a piece of a larger puzzle. Each plant is a part of its unique environment. Different environments could be oceans, forests, deserts, or cities. Each environment also has its own climate, which is partially based on how much sun and rain an area receives every year. Since only certain plants grow in hot, cool, wet, or dry climates, each environment is made up of different types of plant life. A desert may grow palm trees and cacti, while a forest may grow tall pines or oak trees.In order for a plant to grow, it needs four very important puzzle pieces: soil, water, carbon dioxide, and light. Plants use their roots to take in water from the soil. They use their leaves to take in sunlight and carbon dioxide from the air. Green plants contain a pigment called chlorophyll, which gives them their color and collects the sun's energy. Plants use this energy, called solar energy, to create their own food in a process called photosynthesis. During this process, plants convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar, and oxygen is also created as a byproduct of the reaction. This sugar is called "glucose," and it feeds the plant’s growth from a seedling into an adult. The oxygen that plants create during photosynthesis is released into the air. We already know that oxygen is a necessary key to the survival of humans and animals!Photosynthesis can be represented by this simple equation:sunlight + carbon dioxide + water = glucose + oxygenIn this chemical reaction, sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water are reactants. These three things react to create glucose (sugar) and oxygen, which are products of the reaction. Now, who thinks math isn't important? :) Below is a quick summary of the text above. Use the information you learned in the text to fill in the sentences below. Make sure you use the word bank! Leaves help make food for a plant because they contain a green substance called chlorophyll. The leaves collect sunlight and take in a gas called carbon dioxide. The roots take in water and other substances from the ground. The chlorophyll uses energy from the sun to change the water and carbon dioxide into the food that the plant needs. This food is a kind of sugar called glucose. Plants use the glucose for energy, just like you use pizza and tacos! While this is happening, the leaves of the plant gives off a very important gas to us: oxygen! This whole process of plants making food is called photosynthesis. Matching Match the following terms to the correct definition. Refer back to the text if you need some help! chlorophyll pigment that makes plants green glucose the sugar plants use for energy leaves the part of a plant where most photosynthesis takes place photosynthesis the process by which plants make food solar energy energy from the sun oxygen a byproduct of photosynthesis Below are the reactants and products in the photosynthesis equation. Decide whether each item is a reactant or product. Reactants sunlight water carbon dioxide Products glucose oxygen