How Do Plants Eat?

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

All living organisms need food and nutrients to survive.

• Plants are living organisms, right?
• Without mouths, teeth, or stomachs, how are they able to eat?

All plants are producers, meaning they do not have to locate and consume food. Instead, plants can produce their food through a process called photosynthesis.

A plant needs three ingredients for photosynthesis: water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide.

The following steps make up the photosynthesis process.

1. A plant absorbs water through its roots, which is transported to other parts of the plant using the stem.

2. Carbon dioxide is a part of the air because it is the byproduct of humans and animals exhaling oxygen. Plants' systems work oppositely to humans. Rather than breathing out the carbon dioxide, plants breathe carbon dioxide in through tiny pores and release oxygen into the air.

3. A plant must receive direct sunlight for photosynthesis. Plant cells contain tiny green parts called chloroplasts. The chloroplast is green because it contains chlorophyll, a green pigment able to absorb sunlight.

4. Plants' cells cover an entire plant, so photosynthesis can occur in any part of a plant that receives sunlight.

• Which part of the plant receives the most sunlight?

You are correct if you said the leaves! The large surface area of the leaves allows them to receive the most sunlight; therefore, they are the site of most photosynthesis.

5. When all these ingredients are present, a chemical reaction occurs that uses light energy from the sun to turn the raw materials (water and carbon dioxide) into glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar. This simple sugar feeds the plant and provides it with energy.

6. Finally, this process creates plant food and energy, but photosynthesis also benefits humans. As stated earlier, as plants take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, they release fresh oxygen into the air.

To learn more about photosynthesis and why it is important to you, watch the video below.

Answer the following questions in your own words.

• How does a plant eat?
• How does this process affect you?

Continue to the Go It? section for some game time!