Important Plant Processes

1. Important Plant Processes 5th Grade

2. Transpiration is… • when water evaporates from the leaves of plants as water vapor • It is a form of evaporation • It is sometimes called “evapotranspiration”

3. Transpiration

4. Plants are called producers. Why? • They use photosynthesis to make their own food. • They produce the beginnings of most of the food energy on Earth • Animals get their own food energy from plants

5. Photosynthesis is… • A plant’s food-making process where plants capture the energy of light and use it to make their own food

7. What does the word “Photosynthesis” mean? • This term comes from the Greek words that mean “putting together by light.”

8. How does the process of Photosynthesis work? • 1) Sunlight strikes a green part of the plant, such as a leaf. • 2) The chemical chlorophyll (which turns plants green) makes sugar and oxygen

9. What does chlorophyll need to make sugar and oxygen? • SUNLIGHT • WATER • CARBON DIOXIDE

10. What is the scientific name for this sugar? • Glucose!

11. Photosynthesis Equation:

12. Photosynthesis Equation

13. What happens once sugar (glucose) molecules are made? • Sugars in the leaf go into the leaf’s veins and to all parts of a plant • Oxygen a plant makes goes into the air

14. What is Respiration? • When plants use oxygen to break apart sugar • The oxygen is released from the plant and humans breathe it in

15. What percent of the air you breathe in is oxygen? • 21%

16. Respiration • Sugar and oxygen join to produce water and carbon dioxide • Humans breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide

17. What are Tropisms? • A response of a plant toward or away from a stimulus • Stimulus: something in an environment that causes a living thing to react • Response: when a living thing responds to a stimulus

18. Stimulus and Response • Stimulus: the Sun • Response: plant grows toward the area of sunlight