Photosynthesis

This week, the students continued to learn about how to care for the plants they wanted to raise from the Black Oak Savannah.  Through this inquiry process the students learned about the process of photosynthesis.  They learned that a plant breathes in Carbon dioxide from its leaves.  It uses this carbon dioxide combined with water and sunlight to perform a chemical reaction.  Through this chemical reaction the plant produces sugar which it uses as energy and releases oxygen into the air from its leaves.  

To witness first-hand how a plant breathes in carbon dioxide from the stoma in its leaves, the students examined leaves that had been submersed in water for a few hours and left in the sunlight.  They examined bubbles on the underside of the leaves.  They inferred that this was because this is where the leaf released oxygen.  They made the connection that if we were to breathe out under water we would make bubbles too!

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