Grade 6 · Science · Lesson 19

Photosynthesis and Respiration

Every leaf you see is doing something amazing. It is taking sunlight, water, and a gas from the air, and turning all of that into food. The food is a sugar called glucose. The leaf also gives off the oxygen that you and every other animal need to stay alive. That food-making job is called PHOTOSYNTHESIS. The opposite job — using that food to release energy — is called RESPIRATION. These two processes are the engine room of life on Earth.

What this lesson teaches

1Describe photosynthesis as the process plants use to make glucose from sunlight, water, and CO2
2Describe respiration as the process living cells use to release energy from glucose
3Identify the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis and respiration
4Compare the two processes and explain how they balance each other on Earth

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