Plants and Photosynthesis
Original Authors: Jennifer Michnowicz and Lois Kiraly
Revision June 2006: Jennifer Michnowicz and Rebecca Shomo
Farmington Public Schools
11th Grade
Biology
Rebecca Shomo/Jennifer Michnowicz (revision)
DRAFT: 7/21/06
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Table of Contents
Unit Summary
………………….….…………..page(s )( 3)
Stage One: Standards
Stage One identifies the desired results of the unit including the broad
understandings, the unit outcome statement and essential questions that
focus the unit, and the necessary knowledge and skills.
The Understanding by Design Handbook, 1999
…………………………….... page(s)( 4-6)
Stage Two: Assessment Package
Stage Two determines the acceptable evidence that students have acquired the
understandings, knowledge and skills identified in Stage One.
……………………………… page(s) (7-8)
Stage Three: Curriculum and Instruction
Stage Three helps teachers plan learning experiences and instruction that aligns with
Stage One and enables students to be successful in Stage two. Planning and lesson
options are given, however teachers are encouraged to customize this stage to their
own students, maintaining alignment with Stages One and Two.
………………..……………… page(s)( 9-11)
Appendices
Rebecca Shomo/Jennifer Michnowicz (revision)
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Unit Summary
This 5 week unit on Plants and the process of Photosynthesis is designed to be used in grade 11 Biology
with level 2 or 3 students. It is part of a larger unit on Cell Energetics taught in the fall. As a result of this
unit, students should be able to explain the role that photosynthesis plays in the delicate relationship
between plants and animals. Students will ultimately describe how animals rely on plants for their
survival.
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Stage One: Standards
Stage One identifies the desired results of the unit including the broad
understandings, the unit outcome statement and essential questions that
focus the unit, and the necessary knowledge and skills.
The Understanding by Design Handbook, 1999
Essential Understandings and Content Standards
ESU #1 Scientific inquiry is an ongoing process building knowledge
about events and phenomena.
1.25 frame, hypothesize, design, conduct, analyze, and communicate and
defend the results of a controlled scientific experiment
ESU #4 The behavior of the physical world can be interpreted,
understood and predicted in terms of a few fundamental principles.
4.17 interpret and make predictions about the physical world by
recognizing that waves, sound, and light pervade the physical world, and by
applying their properties and behaviors
ESU #7 There is unity among the diverse types of life on Earth.
* 7.24 describe life functions necessary to maintain homeostasis
* 7.25 explain energy flow and transformations among living systems,
including respiration and photosynthesis
* 7.26 recognize how structure and function compliment each other and
enable organisms to adapt to their environments
ESU #9 Constancy, patterns, change, and evolution permeate all
systems.
* 9.16 identify some factors that can disturb equilibrium and demonstrate
their effects
*9.17 illustrate that during the process of evolution, the present system
arises from forms of the past
* 9.19 interpret trends and evaluate patterns of change using tables,
graphs, and equations
9.20 formulate predictions based upon identified patterns
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Unit Outcome Statement
Consistently aligning all instruction with this statement will maintain
focus in this unit.
As a result of this unit on Plants and Photosynthesis, students will know and
understand the role and process of photosynthesis:
•
•
•
•
that plants convert light energy to chemical energy
that plants (from their smallest to largest components) have specialized
structures for carrying on photosynthesis (production of ATP, sugar
and other molecules)
photosynthesis (carried on by autotrophs) is the fundamental process
that supports all other living organisms
that different types of plants have different adaptations
Essential Questions
These questions help to focus the unit and guide inquiry.
HOW DO PLANTS LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE?
•
•
•
What do plants make "Out of Thin Air"?
What role does photosynthesis play in the delicate relationship between
plants and animals?
How do we get from sun to sandwich?
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Knowledge and Skills
The Knowledge and Skills section includes the key facts, concepts, principles, skills, and
processes called for by the content standards and needed by students to reach desired
understandings.
The Understanding by Design Handbook, 1999
Knowledge
Directions:
The student will know:
•
•
That different types of plants exist, from mosses to maple trees.
Land adaptations that evolved in plants such as:
•
Pollen to prevent sperm from drying out
•
Vascular system to transport water from the ground up to entire plant
•
Cuticle on the leaf surface to prevent drying out.
•
That the visible wavelengths are the only portion of the electromagnetic spectrum used in
photosynthesis
Plant pigments capture light energy for photosynthesis
Photosynthesis includes the conversion of light energy to chemical potential energy
The anatomy of the following photosynthetic structures:
• a leaf, plant cells, and chloroplast
How the reactants of photosynthesis get to the reaction site and how the products get out.
The structure and function of ATP as the energy carrier in cells.
The effects of environmental changes upon photosynthesis (the concept of limiting
factors for sugar production)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Skills/Processes
The student will be able to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Apply the scientific method and write a laboratory report
Ability to organize data
Microscope use to view cross section view of a leaf
Wet mount preparation of a Leek leaf
Use of a graduated cylinder to measure liquid volume
Be able to generate a biological drawing (using pencil, labels without crossing lines, etc.)
Use a spectrophotometer and record meaningful data
Measure with a metric ruler
Carry out basic algebraic functions to compute rf values
Thinking Skills
•
•
•
•
•
•
Categorizing photosynthetic terms and structures by identifying the associations among
them
Predicting guard cell responses to environmental changes
Analysis of a graph of the electromagnetic spectrum of visible light
Infer and evaluate spectrophotometer data concerning the dependence of
photosynthetic activity on light
Distinguish between cause and effect in the simulation of environmental influences on
photosynthesis
Identify significant limiting factors for photosynthesis
Infer how plants are essential for the survival of all living organisms by recognizing
long range consequences of their destruction
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Stage Two: Assessment Package
Stage Two determines the acceptable evidence that students have acquired the
understandings, knowledge and skills identified in Stage One.
Directions:
Authentic Performance Task
Goal: Your task is to work with a partner and help solve the problem Luke is having in his
greenhouse on the surface of Mars so he can survive.
Role: You are a member of a botany support team on earth responsible for helping, the
astronaut survive within his greenhouse on Mars.
Audience: Luke
Situation: A member of the research team, Luke, has been living successfully in a greenhouse on
Mars. As a member of the rescue mission you travel to Mars to rescue Luke and bring him
home. When you arrive, you find that the plants are dying and notice that Luke is confused and
having a difficult time breathing. You have 26 hours to figure out what is going wrong before
the plants, Luke AND all of you die. The key is the plants…your task is to figure out why the
plants are dying.
Product:
A. Organize and analyze the data from the greenhouse in order to determine the problem.
B. Describe the process of Photosynthesis and how the plant is affected.
C. Discuss how the death of the plants causes the symptoms seen in Luke.
D. Determine how the problem can be fixed.
Standards & Criteria for Success:
See attached rubric
The following standards will be addressed in the performance assessment:
ESU #1 Scientific inquiry is an ongoing process building knowledge about events
and phenomena.
1.25
ESU #7 There is unity among the diverse types of life on Earth.
* 7.24 -7.26
ESU #9 Constancy, patterns, change, and evolution permeate all systems.
* 9.16 , 9.19, 9.20
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Tests Quizzes
Quizzes: Leaf Anatomy, Reactants and Products of Light Dependent and Light
Independent Reactions (ESU# 4.17, 7.24, 7.25, 7.26)
Test: Fundamental Processes of Photosynthesis with specialized structures
(ESU # 1.25, 4.17, 7.24, 7.25, 7.26, 9.16, 9.19, 9.20)
Projects, Reports, Etc.
Lab Reports:
1) Pigments of Photosynthesis
(ESU # 4.17)
2) Stomata Opening and Closing (ESU # 7.26, 9.16)
3) Microscopic Study of the Leaf (ESU # 7.26)
4) Spectrophotometry/ Light Absorption Lab (ESU # 4.17, 9.19, 9.20)
Computer Simulation: The Limiting Factor (s) of Photosynthesis
(ESU# 1.25, 4.17, 7.24, 7.25, 7.26, 9.16, 9.19, 9.20)
Video of The Secret Life of Plants: note-taking guide and follow-up questions
(ESU# 9.17)
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Stage Three: Learning Experiences and Instruction A Suggested Sequence
Middle Grades and High School
Guiding Questions
Instructional
Strategies
Period 1: Characteristics of Plants
- Brainstorming answers to
How are plants different
this question
from animals?
Checking for
Understanding
Why don’t plants need a
digestive system but
animals do?
How do plants light up
your life?
Period 2-4: Different Types of Plants
- Discuss characteristics
How is moss different from a
different plant types.
maple tree?
Why do some plants have
flowers?
What is fruit?
-Chart on characteristics of
plants
- Discuss adaptations to land
- Lab: Flower dissection. ID
the parts of the flower and
determine the difference
between monocots and dicots.
How do you know a monocot
when you see one?
Period 5: Plant Diversity
- Video: The private life of
Why are desert plants
plants
different from rainforest
plants?
Period 6: What a plant needs to survive
- Brainstorming answers to
this question
- Establish what plants give us
Why do people suggest
and what they need
that you “talk” to your
(individual student drawings
plants?
and diagrams)
Periods 7-10: Light Spectrum and Plant Pigments
- Ask students to recall the
spectrum from their physics
- Why do plants need sun?
class
- Focus on the visible light
- How do plants “soak up the
spectrum (use a prism to show
sun” they need for
the spectrum and their
photosynthesis?
wavelengths)
- Conduct the plant pigment
- It’s not easy being green, so
lab using spinach leaves and
why are plants?
paper chromatography
(includes computing Rf factors
for each pigment)
- Computer simulation
- What do plants “need” to
- Discuss major factors needed
survive?
for plant survival and how
these factors get into leaf.
Explorer: Lesson on what is
photosynthesis and why are
leaves green ?
- Collect Flower Dissection
Lab
Worksheet with questions
from movie
How do plants light up
your life?
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- Worksheet for homework
- Quiz: Light Spectrum &
Plant Pigments
- Computer Simulation Packet
*Performance
Assessment*
Exit Questions:
1) What wavelengths of light
are most important?
2)How do the photosynthetic
products enter the leaf?
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Period 11: Spectrophotometer
- Introduction to
How do we really know that
spectrophotometer use,
light is being absorbed? Is it
determine the absorption
measurable?
spectrum for chlorophyll
Period 12-13: Leaf Structure and Function
- Use a leaf diagram for each
-Why does water drip off a
student to label
leaf, don’t they need it to
- Textbook references to
survive?
complete a chart of leaf parts
-If water can’t get in through
and their functions
- Use of the microscope to
the leaf, how does it get into a
examine and generate a
plant?
biological drawing of a leaf
cross section
-Leek Stomata Lab
Period 14: Chloroplast Structure and Function
- Use a diagram of a
chloroplast to discover its
Where in the leaf does
structure and function
photosynthesis occur?
- Review reactants and
products of photosynthesis
- Discuss where in the
chloroplast the light
dependent and independents
reactions take place.
Period 15: The Light Dependent Reaction
How do plants light up your
life?
How do plants use the energy
of sunlight?
Why do we compare ATP to a
rechargeable battery?
-List specific reactants and
products of the light reaction
-Introduction of ATP as a
molecule that stores energy.
Period 16: The Light Independent Reaction
-List specific reactants and
How do we get from sun to
products of the light
sandwich?
independent reaction.
What do plants get out of thin
air?
Rebecca Shomo/Jennifer Michnowicz (revision)
- Spectrophotometer Lab
Quiz: Leaf Structure &
Function
Leek Stomata Lab Questions
*Performance
Assessment*
Exit Question:
1) What controls the
opening/closing of the
stomata?
*Performance
Assessment*
Exit Question:
1) Where does the light
dependent reaction take
place?
2) Where does the light
independent reaction take
place?
Prompt:
What happens to the energy
from the sunlight? Where
does it go?
*Performance
Assessment*
Exit Question:
1) Where does the waste
product Oxygen come from?
2)
*Performance
Assessment*
Exit Question:
-Where does most of the mass
of a tree come from?
-Quiz: Reactants and products
for both light dependent and
independent reactions.
- Focus ?’s to check for
understanding of major
concepts
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Periods 17-18: Limiting Factors of Photosynthesis
- Computer simulation
Do autotrophs
Explorer lesson on altering
photosynthesize 24/7? In all
factors and evaluating their
kinds of weather?
effect on the photosynthesis
process
- Discussion of the limiting
It’s hot today, do plants care?
factors the students discovered
during the simulation
- Worksheets will be used to
evaluate the student work
done during the simulation
- “It’s hot today ... Do the
plants care? (This could be
done as a pre and post
simulation activity)
*Performance
Assessment*
Exit Question:
What are the limiting factors
of photosynthesis?
Period 19: Photosynthesis: A Fundamental Process For All Living Things
Understanding will be
How does the energy from the -Think/Pair/Share
assessed through monitoring
1. Individuals will reflect and
sun end up in your sandwich?
small group and class
jot down ideas to answer this
discussion.
question.
2. Small group discussion on
how the energy gets from the
sun to their sandwich.
3. Each group will share ideas
with class.
REVIEW answers to Focus
Questions.
Period 20-22: Summative Assessments
Unit Test on Photosynthesis
Assessment: Mission to Mars
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Appendices
Complete set of Essential understandings for your discipline (located in Biology binder in
science office)
Any student work sheets (located in Biology binder in science office)
Performance Assessment (attached)
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Name
Date
Plant Paradox
Form A
1. Movie
Sit back and relax while you watch five minutes of a movie.
2. Task explanation
You have just seen a scene from the movie, Mission to Mars, in which scientists
on the rescue mission find their buddy, Luke, living successfully in a greenhouse
on Mars. Imagine that you are one of those scientists, but when you arrive, you
find the plants dying and Luke is having a hard time breathing. You have 26
hours to figure out what is going wrong before the plants, Luke AND all of you
die. The key is the plants…your task is to figure out why the plants are dying.
3. Day 1 procedure
With your fellow scientists, hypothesize about what COULD be going wrong. Fill
out form A below and hand it in by the end of class today. This counts as part of
your assessment. I will look at them tonight and return them tomorrow so you
have them as you work on your final assessment.
Research Team names:
___________________________
_____________________
___________________________
_____________________
Hypothesis: What could cause the plants to die that also makes it difficult for
Luke to breathe. The answer can include anything, but the explanation
must make sense.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
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Date
Name
Plant Paradox
Form B
Day 2. While you have been hypothesizing about what could go wrong, your colleague has been
doing research and has found the environmental data that Luke has been collecting over the past
two weeks. Examine the data below. Then follow the directions to complete your task and save
the plants and your lives!
Table 52: Week 52 in Mars greenhouse:
Environmental data at 12:00 p.m. (noon)…all seems normal.
Temp.
(°C)
Light
(nm)
CO2
(%of air)
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
1500
1500
1500
1500
1500
1500
1500
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
Water
intake
rate
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.9
0.9
0.8
0.8
Stomatal
opening
factor
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.9
0.9
0.8
Photosyn.
rate
100
100
90
100
90
90
80
Table 53: Week 53 in Mars greenhouse.
Environmental data at 12:00 p.m. (noon)…Something is wrong.
Note from Luke: I don’t think the urine/water recycler is working properly…need
to check that out.
Temp.
(°C)
Light
(nm)
CO2
(%of air)
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
1500
1500
1500
1500
1500
1500
1500
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
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Water
intake
rate
0.8
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.1
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Stomatal
opening
factor
0.9
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.1
0.1
Photosyn.
rate
70
50
30
20
10
0
0
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Name
Hand in the following:
Date
1. For each of the columns in Tables 52 and 53, write a sentence which describes
the trend of the data. There is a line below for each sentence. Write under the
line if you need more room.
Example: “The temperature in the greenhouse remained constant at 25° for
weeks 52 and 53.”
Now write five more sentences for the five remaining factors.
Light:
_____________________________________________________
CO2:
______________________________________________________
Water intake:
______________________________________________________
Stomatal opening factor:
______________________________________________________
Photosynthesis rate:
______________________________________________________
2. Graphs: On the graph paper provided, graph the data of the photosynthetic
rate and one other factor which YOU think is affecting the photosynthetic rate.
Each graph should have a title, labeled axis and a key.
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Name
Date
3. Explanation for the plant death and Luke’s breathing problem.
Having examined the data, make a statement of your inferences as to what is
killing the plants. Fully describe the factor(s) causing the plant death and Luke’s
breathing problem. Be sure to support this with data. Write a detailed
explanation of how the factor(s) affects the photosynthetic rate. Include as much
detail as you can on the process of photosynthesis. Recommend how to fix the
problem in the greenhouse.
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Graphs
Analysis Sentences
Exceeds
Plant Paradox Rubric
Meets
Near
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PS rate plotted accurately
Correct Factor Plotted
Title and axis labeled
properly on both graphs
•
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PS rate plotted accurately
Related Factor Plotted
Title and axis labeled
properly on both graphs
•
•
•
PS rate plotted
Incorrect factor plotted
Title or label may be
missing on one graph
•
•
Accurately describes
trends for both week of
data
Trends are supported
with specific numeric
data
All factors are described
fully and correctly
Factor(s) causing plant
death and Luke’s
breathing problem is
fully described and
supported with data
Detailed explanation of
how factor affects PS
rate. Details of PS
process are included
Recommendation to fix
the greenhouse problem
is correct
•
Accurately describes
trends for one or both
weeks
Trends are supported
with general data
Factors are described
correctly
•
Trends for both weeks
are discussed
Trends are not supported
with data
Some factors are
correctly described
•
Factor(s) causing plant
death and Luke’s
breathing problem is
identified and supported
with data
Explanation of how
factor has an affect on PS
rate is included. Some
details of PS process are
stated, but needs
clarification
Recommendation to fix
greenhouse problem is
related to the actual
correction needed.
•
Factor(s) causing plant
death and Luke’s
breathing problem is
stated, but not supported
with data
Explanation of how
factor affects PS rate is
limited. Details of PS
process are missing OR
limited
Recommendation for
correction is misleading
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Paragraph
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•
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•
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•
•
•
•
•
PS rate plotted
incorrectly
Incorrect factor plotted
Title or label may be
missing on one or both
graphs
Incorrect trends are
discussed OR trends not
discussed at all
Trends not supported
with data OR supported
with incorrect data
Most factors described
incorrectly
Factor(s) causing plant
death and Luke’s
breathing problem is not
clearly identified OR
incorrectly identified
Explanation of how
factor affects PS rate is
incorrect. Details of PS
process are incorrect or
missing
Recommendation is
incorrect or missing
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