10 in Science

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WHAT IS A PLANT?

MANY TYPES OF PLANTS EXIST, WHICH ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER: BUT WHAT DO ALL PLANTS HAVE IN COMMON WITH EACH OTHER? WHAT CHARACTERISTICS ALLOW US TO DECIDE IF AN ORGANISM IS A PLANT OR NOT?

Observe!

Now try to answer… A All plants have roots, a stalk and leaves.

B

All plants need air, water, and light to survive.

C All plants grow in

the ground and have roots.

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| 1 Play!

Experiment!

1. Get a seedling in any jar

(a violet or a basil seedling, which you can buy at the supermarket, is fine).

Put it in a closet or other place where there is no light, but remember to water it a little every day.

What happens after about a week?

THE RECIPE FOR SUGAR Try to make sugar using water and carbon dioxide.

First, create the ingredients you need: 6 molecules of carbon dioxide and 6 molecules of water

Here are the EXAMPLES for building the molecules.

6 molecules of carbon dioxide

2. Make another similar experiment:

leave any potted plant in the light, but do not water it for a few days.

What happens after about a week?

THESE PLANTS SEEM LIKE THEY ARE...

DYING OF HUNGER! In fact, that is exactly what has happened!

Plants use light, air and water to eat.

In fact, plants are capable of producing nourishment within their own bodies--as if you could produce the pasta you need to have energy directly inside your belly.

The most amazing thing is that plants are capable of transforming air and water into sugar!

BUT HOW DO THEY DO THAT?

Simple! From the air and water they take the necessary ingredients and combine them together. From the air they take a MOLECULE of carbon dioxide (composed of two types of atoms: carbon C and oxygen O), which they put together with the water molecule (composed of hydrogen H and oxygen O). The result of this combination is sugar, which in fact is composed of carbon C, hydrogen H and oxygen O.

In producing sugar, however, the plants always have some extra oxygen, which is thrown away. This beautiful process is called CHLOROPHYLL PHOTOSYNTHESIS.

PROCEDURE + Take apart the carbon dioxide molecules, by separating the carbon and oxygen atoms. + Take apart all the water molecules as well, separating the hydrogen and the oxygen. + Now you can make sugar by following the diagram.

6 molecules of water 1 |

Attention! The extra oxygen can’t remain “loose”: the rule is that all the feet on our elements need to be paired up. To get rid of the extra oxygen, the molecules need to be made into pairs.

CHE CO S’È UN A

PIANTA ?

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LE PIAN TE SI

NUTR ONO?

HOW MANY molecules of SUGAR did you create?

And HOW MANY of OXYGEN? LA RICE TTA DE

ALL ORGANISMS THAT USE CHLOROPHYLL FOR PHOTOSYNTHESIS ARE PLANTS. .

A MOLECULE is the smallest part of a substance that has the characteristics of that substance. Molecules consist of ATOMS: very small particles that can be combined together. To better understand, you can imagine that atoms are like letters and molecules are like words. By putting together so many molecules, we get the substance as we see it with the naked eye. For example, in a drop of water there are billions and billions of water molecules.

And what is the light for? The light of the sun is very important. Imagine putting the ingredients to make a smoothie in a blender (milk and pieces of fruit). The smoothie will never get made unless you plug the blender into a socket and then turn it on! Sunlight has precisely this function. It gives the blender the ENERGY necessary to make photosynthesis happen.

+ Ritagl LLO ZU + Usa ia i model CCHE li deg li li atomi.

RO + Ora per costru ire le disfa 6 le mo sulla lecole molecole figura di acq che di pag ua e le ina 7. hai costru 6 mo ito Fai att © 201 enzion e usa i pez lecole di 8, G. Men biossi e a non zi ghini, perder per compor do di car 10 in bonio, scienze e nes , Tren sun ato re le molec basand to, Eric ole oti mo, se kson no non di zucchero sulle figure e potrai di costru quelle di oss pagina 7. ire tut ige te le mo no, basand lecole oti !

Does light give energy? Of course!

You can easily prove this using your skin.

When you are in the sun, you warm up!

It is not a coincidence that SOLAR PANELS are used to produce energy.

Now, think about the initial question: do you still agree

with the answer that you chose?

If you want to change it, you still have time. Then turn the page to discover the solution...

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T A H N G SWE I R E R! TH B A Incorrect because ... many plants have roots, stems, and leaves, but there are some plant species that don’t.

For example, grass doesn’t have a stalk, while a cactus doesn’t have true leaves.

C Incorrect because…

All plants need air, water and light to survive.

In fact, the characteristic that all plants have in common is their capability to use these elements to produce their own food through photosynthesis.

many plants grow in the ground and have roots, but there are some plants that behave differently.

For example, some orchids grow on the trunks of trees, while the Tillandsia (commonly known as an air plant) doesn’t have true roots.

MAYBE YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT… We all breathe thanks to plants. Animals, including humans, need oxygen to breathe. Life is possible for us thanks to the presence of photosynthesis, which creates the oxygen that we breathe every day. This is the reason that plants are very important and why we need to protect large forest areas, often called the LUNGS OF THE EARTH.

Photosynthesis CAN BE SEEN FROM SPACE! In 2017 a NASA space probe called OSIRIS-REX focused its powerful sensors towards the earth, and it could «see», or as scientists would say «recor», light absorption and the emission of oxygen--two signs of photosynthesis.

Now we can search through space to find new worlds where the same thing happens!