KS3 & KS4 science curriculum

This unit helps answer the big question, What are living things and what are they made of?, by examining photosynthesis, a key process where plants convert light, water, and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen, storing energy in chemical bonds. This understanding prepares pupils for the next unit, Aerobic and anaerobic cellular respiration, where they will explore how living organisms release energy from glucose, reinforcing the interconnected roles of photosynthesis and respiration in sustaining life.

1. Producers, photosynthesis and consumers
2. Photosynthesis: an endothermic process that takes place in chloroplasts
3. Models of photosynthesis
4. The requirements and products of photosynthesis: practical

• Plants are multicellular organisms – they are made up of millions of living cells.
• Plants do not take in food; they are producers that make their own food in the form of carbohydrate by photosynthesis.
• The chemical reactants of photosynthesis are water and carbon dioxide.
• Photosynthesis can only happen in the light.
• The chemical products of photosynthesis are oxygen and glucose (a type of carbohydrate).
• Photosynthesis involves many chemical reactions; a word summary of the reactants and products is a model of the process.
• Plant leaves are adapted for photosynthesis; they have stomata for gas exchange, to absorb carbon dioxide and release waste oxygen; and they have a large surface area to absorb light.
• The cells that make up leaves have chloroplasts that contain chlorophyll, where photosynthesis takes place.