Photosynthesis - Diary of a carbon atom

Photosynthesis lesson (may be two depending on the length of your lessons and the extent to which this is new content)

Settler - developing inquisitiveness - why is the image amazing? Trees can be outside through the whole year for decades. Can we sit in the sun and get energy? No! We have to eat. Trees can though!

Starter - addressing misconceptions about the equation, order of the reactants / products and link to aerobic respiration

Activity 1 - why photosynthesis is amazing! Plants gain mass using carbon dioxide and water in photosynthesis. Video and sentence stems for students to complete.

Activity 2 - revise the cell and leaf structure using a fun game. Develops students ability to verbally describe - link to describing correctly in the exam (say what you see!). All instructions in the PPT. Link the importance of the images to photosynthesis (chloroplasts - site of photosynthesis, leaf - show the journey of water and carbon dioxide to the cell and oxygen and glucose away, link to diffusion and osmosis to revise how the substances move)

Activity 3 - go on a journey to show the scales involved from the whole organism, zooming in to the leaf, then zoom in to the cell and organelles, then in to the molecules and atoms involved in the reaction. Discuss what the plant uses glucose for.

Activity 4 - draw all information together to write the diary of a carbon atom. Scaffolded worksheet in the powerpoint and a model answer afterwards too.

Plenary - associate the key words with the different parts of the equation. Make it a game - how many of the words can you justify being linked to each part of the equation. E.g. diffusion can be linked to oxygen because the oxygen will diffuse into the cell to reach the chloroplast.