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Identify plants, algae, and cyanobacteria as organisms that can use light to build their own energy-rich carbon compounds. Compare them with non-photosynthetic organisms that must get those compounds by eating or absorbing food.
Use what you learned in the previous lesson to solve real-world problems.
Translate “carbon dioxide + water + light → sugar + oxygen” into a simple input-process-result chain. Sort which parts are materials taken in, which part is energy, and which parts are made and released.
Check what you understood with a short quiz.
Trace how carbon dioxide from the air becomes part of sugar instead of staying as a gas. Use this to explain why much of a plant’s new mass comes from carbon compounds made during photosynthesis, not directly from soil.
Connect photosynthesis products to visible growth in leaves, stems, roots, fruits, and seeds. Reason through how sugars can be used as building material for larger plant structures such as cellulose-rich cell walls.
Recognize starch as a storage form made from extra sugar when photosynthesis produces more than the plant immediately uses. Link starch in leaves, seeds, and tubers to the idea that photosynthesis can make stored food for later.
Use an iodine starch test as evidence that a leaf has made and stored carbohydrate. Predict why a leaf kept without useful light should show less starch than a leaf that has been photosynthesizing.
Interpret bubbles from an aquatic plant in light as oxygen gas escaping into the water. Connect the bubbles back to the word equation while avoiding the mistake of treating bubbles as the plant’s “food.”
Separate photosynthesis from plant respiration by comparing their net materials: photosynthesis builds sugars and releases oxygen, while cells also break down sugars to stay alive. Use this distinction to explain why plants can both make food and use food.
Review this chapter with practice based on your mistakes.
