Friday, November 07, 2008

Fall is a Great Time to Teach About Photosynthesis

With the change of season comes less daylight. Less daylight results in the fall color change for trees. This makes a great time to teach your students about how plants use sunlight to change water and carbon dioxide into glucose through photosynthesis. Fall is an excellent time because it allows teachers to put the process into a context that the kids will likely remember.

Being able to explain why a leaf changes from green to yellow (or any other color) requires knowledge of how plants capture sunlight (they use the pigment chlorophyll). Since this is the case, why not just teach the whole process? Below is a list of links that I've gathered that explain why leaves change colors in the fall.
I've also added a new page to misterteacher.com complete with resources if you're planning on taking your class into nature.

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2 comments:

Joe said...

Thanks for posting these resources on photosynthesis. I'm definitely passing them on to my 7th grade colleagues who are right in the middle of that unit.

jim said...

Hi, I have a suggestion for adding a little "Joy" to your photosynthesis unit. Each year I challenge my kids and myself to go out and catch a leaf. Its not as easy as it seems but it sure is a lot of fun and addictive. This year I gave out cool certificates to everyone who took the challenge. Next fall we are going to flip their stories and put in on our class web site.

www.visitmyclass.com/blogs/theskinny.

You have a great blog. Thanks for sharing.

Jim