Photosynthesis

In this lesson, you will be investigating how plants produce their own food. This process, called photosynthesis, is very important since animals rely on plants for food. Therefore, the study of plants (botany) is a very important one for the survival of all living things. As well as investigating the process of photosynthesis, you'll be learning how to change the presentation of information from words into drawings. It is sometimes faster to get information from a picture than by having to read a lot of words, so this is a good thing to be able to do.

What is photosynthesis?
In the last lesson, you discovered that one of the main differences between plants and animals is that plants can make their own food and animals cannot.

What is the name of the process whereby plants make their own food?

The process is called photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is probably the most important process that occurs on Earth. All life depends on it. Our present knowledge of photosynthesis is the outcome of many experiments and theories, built up over at least 300 years. Scientists are curious people, who like to investigate the world around them and suggest explanations for why things occur. The following

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investigations demonstrate this curiosity and the way that the scientific community has gone about answering questions about plants.

van Helmonts experiment

Johann Baptist van Helmont lived in Belgium and his findings were reported in 1648. At that time, most people thought that plants grew because they took materials out of the soil. Dr van Helmont devised a plan to test this idea. Dr van Helmont was investigating plant growth. He placed 90.9 kg of dry soil in a pot. In this he planted a 2.3 kg willow shoot. He watered the plant. After five years he weighed the plant (now a tree). It weighed 77.0 kg. He also weighed the dry soil. It weighed 90.8 kg.

Lets examine what this experiment shows.

Activity: van Helmonts experiment

Analyse the experiment of van Helmonts experiment by answering the following questions. 1 How much weight had the plant gained? _______________________________________________________ 2 How much weight had the soil lost? _______________________________________________________ 3 How long did the experiment go on for? _______________________________________________________ 4 What did van Helmont do to the plant during the experiment? _______________________________________________________
The plant gained 74.7 kg in five years. ( 77.0 2.3 = 74.7 kg). The soil lost 0.1 kg in five years. (90.9 90.8 = 0.1 kg). The experiment went on for five years and only water was added during the experiment.

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The drawing below was done by a Year 7 student, Daniel. This is one way to show how van Helmont carried out his experiment and the results he got.
willow

willow dry soil 5 years dry soil

2.3 kg

water only 90.9 kg 90.8 kg 77 kg

van Helmonts experiment State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004

What can be learned from the experiment? Now you can see clearly how van Helmont did his experiment and the results that he obtained. You need to look at what he learned from his experiment. Why do you think that the willow tree increased in weight over five years? ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Van Helmont thought that the increase in weight was due to water alone. He did not consider the possibility that gases from the air might also be involved. Did you?

What kinds of skills do you think a scientist should have? ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Did you say that a scientist should be able to make careful observations, measure accurately and make inferences? Did you also think that a scientist needs to be curious and not just accept what other people think? Maybe you even said that a scientist should be creative because van Helmont had to think up an experiment by himself.

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What do we know about plants so far?

Plants grow without eating food.

Plants need water

Joseph Priestleys experiments

The next evidence for photosynthesis is from the experiments of Joseph Priestley. Priestley was an Englishman who had been investigating gases, particularly oxygen. Gases, or vapours as they were called by most people of the time, were little understood. Vapours were thought to cause diseases. People closed their windows and covered their faces to try to protect themselves from vapours. Priestley, and other scientists of the 1700s, wanted to logically investigate what gases were and what they did. Priestleys first experiment Joseph Priestley had observed that a candle burning in a sealed jar soon went out. If a mouse was then put into the jar it soon suffocated. This was because burning uses up oxygen in the air. Animals need to breathe in oxygen. What are the important points in the passage above? Underline them. Did you choose these points? Burning uses oxygen. The mouse suffocates without oxygen in the air. The experiment took place in a sealed jar. Think about this experiment and then try the following activity.

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Activity: Joseph Priestleys experiment

Draw a diagram that shows you how Priestley set up his first experiment.

Priestleys first experiment

Compare your answer with the one in the answer pages. Remember that there is no right or wrong drawing as long as all the information is presented in a way that most people can understand. Priestleys second experiment In another experiment, Priestley burned a candle in a sealed jar. He then placed a plant in the jar which contained air with no oxygen. The plant survived. Then Priestley placed a mouse in the jar that had the plant in it. The mouse did not suffocate. 2 What are the important points from the passage above? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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In the box following, draw a diagram to show the information in the passage called Experiment 2.

Priestleys second experiment

Compare your drawing with the one in the answer pages. Does your drawing show all the information clearly? Comparing Priestley's experiments How were Priestley's experiments similar? How were they different? Complete the following table to compare them. 4 For each experiment, put a tick beside each statement that is true and a cross beside each statement that is not true.

Experiment 1 a b c d A candle was burned in a sealed jar. A mouse was put into the sealed jar. A plant was put into the sealed jar. The mouse died.

Experiment 2

Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.

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A, B and C are all things that Priestley did in his experiments. They are steps in his method. D is what happened. It is part of his results. To learn something new from Experiment 2, you need to compare it with Experiment 1. There is only one thing that Priestley did differently in his two experiments. This is called a fair test, or a controlled experiment. It means that you can see the effect on the results of changing, or varying, one thing. Controlled experiments are very important in science. Priestley's experiments The results could depend on a change made by the candle so he burned the candle in both experiments. The results could depend on putting the mouse into the jar so he did this in both experiments. Making these variables the same in both experiment is called controlling them, or making them constant. The only variable that was different was using the plant. It is the only thing that changed that could have altered the results. The results did change. The plant made the difference between the mouse living and dying.

Now answer these questions about Priestleys experiments.

Together, do Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 make a controlled experiment? Why or why not? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

What variable is Priestley testing in his experiments? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

Can you think of a variable in Priestley's experiments that does not need to be controlled because it would not alter his results? What is it? _______________________________________________________

Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.

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What can be learned from Priestleys experiments? Other scientists performed experiments that showed that the gas in Priestley's experiments was oxygen. From Priestley's results we can say that burning uses oxygen, animals need oxygen and plants give out oxygen. What do we know about photosynthesis so far? Plants grow without eating. Plants need water. Plants give out oxygen. Animals need the oxygen that plants produce.

Jan Ingen-Houszs experiment

In the late 1700s, the Dutchman, Jan Ingen-Housz, discovered that plants only gave out oxygen when they were in light. He also showed that only the green parts of plants give out oxygen. Do you remember what the green-coloured matter in plants is called? Well done if you remembered that it is called chlorophyll.

Jean Senebiers experiment

At the end of the eighteenth century, a Swiss minister named Jean Senebier worked out that another gas, carbon dioxide, is involved in photosynthesis. He also reasoned that the larger the plant the more carbon there was present. Carbon can be seen when plants are burnt. The bigger the tree, the more charcoal (carbon) Senebier produced. Senebier showed that the carbon came from the intake of carbon dioxide. Carry out the activity to summarise what these experiments tell us about plants.

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Activity: Summary
Complete this summary using these words: controlled carbon dioxide make/produce oxygen food water sunlight variables tests

Summary
Plants make their own ____________________________________ . Plants need ____________________________________________ . Plants give out __________________________________________ . Animals need the oxygen that plants ________________________ . Photosynthesis occurs when plants are in _____________________ . Plants take in _________________________ during photosynthesis. ______________________________ are things that can be changed in an experiment. An experiment should be planned so that it ____________________ one variable only. In a __________________________ experiment, only one variable is changed; the other variables are kept the same. Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.

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Now use the information you have summarised to complete the exercises.

Preparing for the Exercise

In the Exercise, you'll test your understanding of controlled experiments and variables, and your skill at presenting information as drawings. Go to the exercises section and complete Exercises Discovering photosynthesis.

What did you achieve?

Tick what you can do. list the things needed by plants for photosynthesis complete a summary about photosynthesis and its importance identify variables in an experiment present information as drawings.

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Suggested answers
Check your responses against these suggested answers.

Joseph Priestleys experiments

1 The drawing below is one way that the information about Priestleys experiment on oxygen could be presented.

State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004

Here are some points that are important in the description of Priestleys second experiment. Your points may not be exactly the same. As long as what you have written means the same then you are doing well. The plant survived in air without oxygen. The plant replaced the oxygen in the air. The mouse did not suffocate because the plant replaced the oxygen at least until the mouse used up all the oxygen.

The drawing below is one way of presenting the information about Priestleys second experiment with oxygen.

State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004

Your diagram may not be exactly the same but this only means that you have chosen a different way to show all the important points. As long as the important points are shown and it is clear for the reader then you are doing well.

Lesson 7/20 What are plants and animals?

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4 a b c d 5 A candle was burned in a sealed jar. A mouse was put into the sealed jar. A plant was put into the sealed jar. The mouse died.

Experiment 1

Experiment 2

Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 make a controlled experiment because only one thing changes from Experiment 1 to Experiment 2. Experiment 2 uses a plant but Experiment 1 doesn't. The variable that is being tested is the one thing that Priestley chose to change whether or not there was a plant in the test. (The variable that Priestley observes tells him whether the plant affects the results he observes whether the mouse lives or dies.) Some variables that would not affect the results are: the kind of jar that was used (although the size of the jar might not be); the clothes Priestley was wearing; the weather; the colour of the mice. (All these things are still variables because they can be changed. It is just that changing them does not affect the experiment.)

Summary
Plants grow without food. Plants need water. Plants give out oxygen. Animals need the oxygen that plants make or produce. Photosynthesis occurs when plants are in sunlight. Plants take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Variables are things that can be changed in an experiment. An experiment should be planned so that it tests one variable only. In a controlled experiment, only one variable is changed.

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Exercise
Living things Name Teacher ___________________________ ___________________________

Exercise
1 that the from

Discovering photosynthesis

Complete this summary of photosynthesis using the words below. is and as in for to their

Plants and animals are living things. They are similar ____________ many ways. Both plants and animals grow, reproduce, respond ____ stimuli and exchange materials with the environment. Plants and animals obtain their food in different ways. Green plants can make their own food, whereas animals rely on plants or other animals _______________________ their food. Animals cannot make their own food. The process by which plants make _____________ own food is called photosynthesis. For photosynthesis to occur, plants need energy raw materials. Plants take in carbon dioxide through their leaves _ the air. Water is absorbed from the soil through the roots. These are the raw materials __________________________ plants need to make food. Energy is needed so that plants can make their own food. The source of this energy ___________________ sunlight. Green plants contain chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the green pigment that can trap energy from sunlight.

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Photosynthesis produces oxygen and water as well ____________ food in plants. Oxygen and water are given out by plants through the leaves during ___________________ day, since photosynthesis only occurs when there is light. Animals rely on plants for their food and their oxygen.

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