Photosynthesis Cookies
Objective
The student will identify photosynthesis as a process through which
organisms make their own food.
The students will be able to write the formula for the photosynthesis equation.
The student will describe how the processes of photosynthesis and respiration
compliment each other.
Ohio Academic Content Standard
Life Science B: Explain the characteristics of life as indicated by cellular processes and
describe the process of cell division and development.
Materials
Ingredients for chocolate chip cookies (found on back of a bag of chocolate chips)
(per group) Mixer, 2 bowls, dry and liquid measuring cups, rubber spatula, spoon
gallon size Ziplock bags
sandwich size Ziplock bags
like / not like graphic organizer
Procedure
Discussion
• Students should share what they ate for breakfast, lunch.
• Discuss how plants get the food they need to survive. (At the high school level
students should be familiar with photosynthesis as a process by which plants make
their own food. They probably will not know the chemical formula.)
• Draw a plant on the board. Have student’s copy plant in their science notebooks.
• Ask students what they know about what plants need to survive and where that
material enters the plant. Have a student volunteer add these ingredients to the
drawing on the board while the rest of the class copies the information into their
notebook. Fill in any missing information. Drawing should include
o Sunlight on the leaves
o Water entering the roots
o Carbon dioxide entering the holes (stomata) on the leaves
• Ask students if they have ever baked cookies. Have a volunteer describe the process.
(Ingredients are mixed, baked in an oven, the result is cookies a food and source of
energy.)
• Tell students that “just like we bake our food, plants make glucose, their food,
through the process of photosynthesis.” Write the chemical formula for
photosynthesis on the board as you discuss the process. Students should copy the
chemical formula into their notebooks.
• “The ingredients, water and carbon dioxide are mixed.”
• “Sunlight is added, as a source of energy, just like heat energy that changes our dough
into cookies.”
• “Photosynthesis happens in the chlorophyll of plants, just like cookie baking happens
in an oven.”
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“When photosynthesis is complete the product is glucose, the plants food. When
baking is complete we have cookies, a food for us.”
Point out that oxygen is a byproduct of the photosynthesis. It is released into the
atmosphere.
At this time the chemical formula on the board should look like
CO2 + H2O → C6 H12O6 + O2
Baking
• Divide the class into four or five groups.
• The members of the cooperative learning group should assign one another the roles of
materials (gathers and returns supplies), measurement (measures ingredients), mixer
(mixes ingredients), and manager (keeps group on task and keeps track of time).
• Allow students to mix cookies according to recipe.
• Place cookie dough in the Ziplock bag. Students should write their names on the bag.
•
Teacher or student volunteer should bake cookies at home and return them the next
day.
Graphic organizer
• Pass out the like / not like graphic organizer
• Have students return to their cooperative learning groups from the pervious day.
• In the groups students should write down how baking cookies is like photosynthesis
and not like photosynthesis.
• When group managers should share group findings with class. Group with the most
correct facts gets their cookies first.
Distrabution
• Pass out sandwich size Ziplock bags and photocopied cookie recipes.
• Students should write the formula for photosynthesis on the back of the recipes.
• Students should place two cookies in each bag and tape a copy of the photosynthesis
cookie recipe and formula to the front of the bag.
• AFTER packaging cookies students may eat two each.
• While students enjoy cookies, ask them
“When we breathe, what gas necessary for life do our bodies take from the air?”
(oxygen)
“How does that oxygen get into the air?” (Released by plants during photosynthesis)
“What gas leaves our bodies when we exhale?” (carbon dioxide)
“What gas do plants take in during the process of photosynthesis?” (carbon dioxide)
“Why is photosynthesis important to living organisms?” ( It produces the oxygen we
need to for respiration, it produces glucose which is a food source)
• At the end of the period allow students to pass out cookies to other school faculty.
They must explain how photosynthesis is like baking cookies. (It is a good idea to
warn faculty that students will be doing this.)
Photosynthesis
Li ke
Not Like