Photosynthesis and Respiration

Activities

Use this “Photosynthesis / Cell Respiration / Enzymes / Light” Jeopardy Game (ppt).
Try this Flinn Scientific, Inc. “Respiration versus Photosynthesis” (pdf) activity.
Have students do this “Energy in a Cell” (word doc) crossword puzzle.
Or do this “Energy in a Cell” wordsearch puzzle (doc) with answers (doc).
“The Demise of the Halloween Pumpkin” would be a great activity to start around Halloween. This is an ongoing activity that will last aproximately 3 months. The activity measures energy use, but teaches about setting up controlled experiments and about the decomposing activity of microorganisms.
Use this “Photosynthesis” (pdf) tutorial with questions for students to answer.
Play the “Come On Down (The Electron Transport Chain)” song performed by Sam Reid. (To save the song you can right-click on the link and select “Save Target As.”)
Play this Quia battleship “Glycolysis” game.
“The Effects of Light Intensity and Wavelength on the Rate of Photosynthesis” is an activity that uses this photosynthesis animation.
Do NOVA’s “Illuminating Photosynthesis” activity and have students complete this “Photosynthesis Webquest” worksheet that goes with it.

The “Effects of a Closed Environment on Living Things” lab demonstrates how plants use carbon dioxide and produce carbon and how animals use oxygen and produce carbon dioxide.
This “Do Plants Consume or Release CO2? Or Both?” lab demonstrates how plants carry on both photosynthesis and respiration.
The “Rate of Photosynthesis” lab explores just that.
Do the “Leaf Pigment Chromatography” lab (doc).
This lab (doc) compares the production of starch in leaves kept in the light and those in the dark.
This “Fermentation by Yeast” lab (doc) can be used in this unit or with the study of microorganisms.
“Photosynthesis: A Controlled Experiment” illustrates the effect of differing amounts of carbon dioxide on photosynthesis in geranium plants. Coleus or other similar plants could just as easily be used.
In “The Heat is On – The Energy Stored in Food” students will burn several types of nuts and snack foods in order to determine their heat content per gram.
In Kim Rebello’s “Every Breath You Take” (doc) lab students investigate whether animals and plants carry on respiration.
This “Plant Respiration” lab (doc) uses seedlings and a bromothymol blue solution to demonstrate that plants give off CO₂ during respiration.