Create a free account now and get 3 full lessons, completely free. Get my 3 free lessons

Worldwide: choose your country
Utah · Utah SEEd · Grade 8

8.3.2: Develop a model to describe how food is changed through chemical…

Develop a model to describe how food is changed through chemical reactions to form new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as matter cycles through an organism.

The Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards outcome 8.3.2 (Life Sciences) for Grade 8 says: “Develop a model to describe how food is changed through chemical reactions to form new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as matter cycles through an organism.” This Fieldbook unit teaches it hands-on, with everyday materials and a printable teacher guide and student sheet for every lesson. Official wording: Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards.

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.

  • 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 8.3.2

These pages practise a closely related idea; the match to 8.3.2 is partial.

Need just this outcome? Build a custom pack from these pages, with its answer key, in about a minute. Custom packs come with All-access and school licences.

Compared with NGSS: MS-LS1-7 (partial).

More Utah Grade 8 science outcomes we teach

Every Utah Grade 8 science standards outcome we teach

Every unit matched to Utah's curriculum · All places and curricula

Three full lessons, free

Make a free account and download any three Fieldbook lessons as printable PDFs. No card needed.