Day 15 Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis!
-The process by which solar energy is trapped and stored as chemical energy in the bonds of organic molecules
Activity:
Get into groups of 4
-Each person take out a piece of paper and set it on your desk
-I am going to post a question on the board and then you are going to have 1 minute to answer it on your paper
-After the minute is up you are going to switch papers and then you will have one minute to respond to the other persons answers on their paper.
-We will rotate until you get your own paper back.
-Then we start again with the new question
Questions
1) Energy cannot be created
-Where does all the energy on earth come from and how do we get that energy
2) What do plants eat?
3) What is the waste product of plants? (What do they poop)
4) Where does all the weight come from?
-When you were born you were around 6-9 pounds and now you weigh a hundred pounds. Where did that weight come from?
5) Where does the weight in a tree come from?
-A tree starts off as a seed that only weighs one ounce and then grows up to weigh over a thousand pounds. Where did all that weight come from?
-In your groups of 4 assign
-A manager
-An Artist
-A scribe
-A speaker
- Now research these topics
1) Did dinosaurs die from lack of sunlight?
2) Jan Baptist van Helmont Experiment
3) Create and design a carbon cycle with full explanation
4) Create a food web and be able to explain how all life on this planet depends on photosynthesis, even our electricity and fuel
5) Explain how cacti do photosynthesis (Explain the C4 and CAM plants in an easy to understand way, a way that all students will understand. One way of doing this is by comparing regular C3 photosynthesis to C4 and CAM)
6) Explain how CO2 is causing climate change. Show what it does to our atmosphere, our oceans, and how it affects the weather
Watch this short video on what plants eat. Take notes and make sure you understand what plants are doing with water, air, dirt, and sunlight.
Chloroplasts- Photosynthesis takes place in this organelle
The anatomy of a leaf
The epidermis is the outer layer
-On the epidermis is a cuticle
-A Cuticle is a waxy covering that helps waterproof and protect the leaf
-On the epidermis there are pores called Stomata that open and close allowing gas exchange like CO2
Stomata
The stomata are pores (Tiny openings on the surface of a leaf) The stomata can open and close allowing CO2 to enter the leaf and O2 to exit the leaf. The plant will also use the stomata to help bring water from the roots all the way up to the leaves. The stomata will open allowing water vapor to rise out of the leaf. Through the process of adhesion and cohesion, the water vapor will pull on the water molecules below it creating a chain reaction that pulls water from the roots all the way up the plant.
-The mesophyll contains the chloroplasts and veins
-Phloem and Xylem
-Xylem carries water
-Phloem carries sugar
Why are plants green?
-Electromagnetic Spectrum
Light wavelengths can be a complicated topic. Watch this introduction to wavelengths and take notes. Make sure you understand what white light is, what a wavelength is, why the sky is blue, and the difference between blue light and red light.
Lecture and Class discussion:
-Why do we see the colors we see?
-What happens when you place a plant in green light?
-What happens when you place a plant in blue light?
Pigments
A pigment is anything that absorbs light. The reason most things are the color they are is because of a pigment. Human's are the color they are because of the pigment melanin.
The pigments of photosynthesis
-Chlorophyll- light pigment in plants
-Chlorophyll a
-Chlorophyll b
-Accessory pigments
-Carotenoids
Subtractive colors (Pigments)
Additive Colors (Light)
Why do leaves change color throughout the seasons?
-A tree or plant will become dormant during the winter months because it costs too much energy to stay active during this
time
-Once a tree starts to prepare for the winter it kills off its leaves and drops them. The chlorophyll in the leaves which is green dies first which then reveals the orange carotenoids that were always present with the chlorophyll. Then the carotenoids die and the tree drops the leaf