Plants Store Carbon from the Atmosphere

Water comes up the stem and into the leaves

Your desktop is going to be the inside of the leaf.

On your desk make as many water molecules as you can H O H H O 2

Carbon dioxide enters the stomata (openings) in the underside of the leaf.

On your desk make as many carbon dioxide molecules as you can O C O CO 2

Energy from the Sun starts a chemical reaction

Chemical Reaction

Sugar is the product C H O 612 6

Click here to see the true structure

What is left over? Have you ever heard the saying, “Plants make oxygen”? O 2

Carbon + water + light dioxide energy sugar + oxygen CO 2 H O light energy C H O O 2 Photosynthesis

How many oxygen gas molecules were you able to put together? How does the oxygen get into the atmosphere? Click here to see…

Using what you have just learned, explain how plants “make” oxygen. Include each molecule that is part of the chemical reaction of photosynthesis and how it got into the leaf.

synthesis Photosynthesis light Creation of something new and more complex from simple things

Materials 6 carbon atoms (black circles) 12 hydrogen atoms (small white circles) 18 oxygen atoms (larger red circles) Cut out and labeled prior to the lab For each pair and placed in a ziplock bag