Photosynthesis: What is happening?

Have you ever heard water being called by a different name?

H O H

Have you ever heard carbon dioxide being called by a different name? Carbon dioxide bubbles in a glass of soda.

O C O

Both water and carbon dioxide play an important part in photosynthesis.

Water comes up the stem and into the leaves

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

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

Energy from the Sun is absorbed by the plant

Chemical Reaction The bonds holding the water and carbon dioxide together are broken.

Sugar is made by the plant. So what does a sugar particle look like? Let’s see…..

Sugar is the product C H O 612 6

What do you notice?

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

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

The sugar stays in the leaf. When animals eat the plant, they get the sugar as food.

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