MS.LS1.6: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of…

How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration Grades 6–8

Where does a tree's mass come from, what happens to the sugar a plant makes, and how does the Sun's energy run a whole ecosystem? Three no-materials lessons with a 400-year-old willow experiment, printed atom cards and a carbon-atom role-play.

• Where does a tree's mass come from? 50–60 min

  Teams work through Jan Baptist van Helmont's real willow data and five modern evidence cards to settle where 74 kg of new tree came from. They argue from the numbers to the modern answer, carbon dioxide from the air, and write the word and balanced equations for photosynthesis.

• What happens to the food a plant makes? 50–60 min

  Teams rearrange 36 printed atom cards from carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen, then back again, and prove that no atom is made or lost. At four case stations they read data on plants in the dark, sprouting seeds, weight loss and apple stores, and explain that plants and animals both respire.

Printable practice for MS.LS1.6

• How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration workbook included with the unit

  2 readings, 1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

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