How Do Plants Make Food? | Botany Basics

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Questions and Prompts for Educators 

Check for Understanding

• What is the process plants use to make their own food?
• What three ingredients does a plant need to make food?

Take It Further

• When plants make their food, they release the oxygen we need to survive. What would happen to us and our environment if half of all plants disappeared? What makes you think that?

Create

• Draw a tree or a plant with green leaves, but instead of using a green-colored pencil, try painting using the chlorophyll from real green leaves. Roll the leaves into a ball and rub them on the paper like a paintbrush. Go a step further: Add a diagram showing the process of photosynthesis with your plant. For an extra challenge, add yourself to the diagram.

Make a Personal Connection

• What recipe do you like to make that nourishes you?
• Take three deep breaths and pose like your favorite plant for 30 seconds. For example, you can stand tall with arms wide like a big tree with branches or move side to side like poppy flowers blowing in the wind. Next, imagine absorbing the sun and carbon dioxide from the air, pulling the water up through your roots, and creating your own energy to sustain you. How did it feel to be a plant?