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7th grade Photosynthesis: how plants make food from light, water and air worksheet

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Photosynthesis: how plants make food from light, water and air

Grade 7 Science Worksheet - Challenge Me

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

  1. Ari’s friend says plants get their food from the soil, so soil is plant food. Which response is best?

    • Agree: the roots pull the plant’s food out of the soil for it
    • Agree: fertilizer is the food that plants live on
    • Disagree: leaves make their sugar from carbon dioxide and water
    • Disagree: plants live on water and nothing else
  2. Bo’s friend says plants take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide when they make sugar. Which response is best?

    • Disagree: plants trade no gases with the air
    • Agree: that is why plants need fresh air
    • Disagree: making sugar takes in carbon dioxide and gives off oxygen
    • Agree: plants trade gases the very same way people do when breathing
  3. Esme’s friend says sunlight is a plant’s food. Which response is best?

    • Agree: leaves soak up light and store it inside as plant matter
    • Disagree: soil is the plant’s real food
    • Agree: plants grow by turning light into wood
    • Disagree: light gives energy; the food is sugar the leaf makes
  4. Read this first

    Investigation card

    Plant 1 sat in a sunny window and was watered every day. Plant 2 sat in a dark closet and was watered once a week. After two weeks Plant 1 was taller.

  5. Kira tested whether light helps a plant grow. What is the flaw in this test?

    • Plant height is not a thing a class can measure
    • There is no flaw, because light caused the growth
    • Both plants should have been kept in the dark the whole time
    • Two things changed, light and water, so the cause is unclear
  6. Investigation card (model data)

    Two matching water plants in sealed jars of water, the same size and temperature. Bubbles counted in 10 minutes: under an LED lamp, 40; in the dark, 0.

  7. Luz’s class compared two water plants in sealed jars, one under a lamp and one in the dark. Which conclusion is strongest?

    • The dark plant kept its bubbles for later
    • The lamp plant took in oxygen from the jar
    • Light is needed for the plant to give off oxygen
    • Light turned into the gas in the bubbles
  8. Use this

    Leaf arrow diagram, not to scale. Boxes: Sun, leaf (green cells with chloroplasts), air, roots and stem, rest of the plant. Arrows: Sun to leaf; roots and stem to leaf; air to leaf; leaf to air; leaf to rest of the plant. Every arrow is labeled. Table (model data), carbon dioxide level in a sealed clear box holding a potted plant, in units: start, 400; after 6 hours in bright light, 300; after 6 more hours in the dark, 350.

  9. Milo reads two figures. Why did the carbon dioxide level fall during the 6 hours of light?

    • The light turned the carbon dioxide into energy
    • The roots pushed the carbon dioxide into the soil
    • The plant took in carbon dioxide to make sugar
    • The plant gave off carbon dioxide while making sugar
  10. Noah reads two figures. Why did the carbon dioxide level rise again during the 6 hours of dark?

    • The plant turned stored light into carbon dioxide
    • The plant made even more sugar in the dark than it did in the light
    • No sugar was made, but the cells still released carbon dioxide
    • Carbon dioxide leaked out of the potting soil
  11. Ren grows a bean seedling in a dark box. It grows tall and pale for a week. How can it grow with no light?

    • Its roots take in sugar from the water
    • It uses food stored in the seed by the parent plant
    • It uses up the light it took in before it was planted
    • It makes sugar from the soil in the dark
  12. Use this

    Drawing of a leaf with green patches and white patches, not to scale. Test result (read about; an adult did a starch test): starch, the stored form of sugar, found in the green parts, none in the white parts.

  13. Tala reads about a leaf with green and white patches kept in light. A starch test found stored sugar in the green parts but not the white parts. Why?

    • The white parts got less light than the green parts
    • The white parts lack the green chloroplasts that make sugar
    • The white parts give off carbon dioxide instead of oxygen
    • The white parts take sugar from the soil instead
  14. Bubbles in 10 minutes under the same lamp: tap water, 40; boiled and cooled water, 8. Zee reads that a water plant gave off fewer bubbles in water an adult had boiled and cooled first. Which explains it?

    • The cooled water blocked the lamp’s light
    • Boiling took the plant food out of the water
    • Boiling took out the oxygen that the plant needs to take in
    • Boiling removed carbon dioxide, an input the plant needs
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7th grade Photosynthesis: how plants make food from light, water and air worksheet – printable
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About this worksheet

Photosynthesis: how plants make food from light, water and air. Every version has 10 questions, and the answer key prints on the second page.

What your child will learn

  • I can name the inputs (light energy, water, carbon dioxide) and outputs (sugar, oxygen) of photosynthesis, and say it happens in chloroplasts.
  • I can tell which arrows carry matter and which carry energy, and say the light energy is stored in the sugar.
  • I can explain from evidence that most of a plant's new mass comes from carbon dioxide in the air, not from the soil.
  • I can predict what happens to sugar-making when light, water or carbon dioxide changes, and read an investigation card about it.

Standard: MS-LS1-6

Words to know

photosynthesis: How green plant cells make sugar from carbon dioxide and water, using light energy

input / output: What goes in / what comes out

chloroplast: The green part of a plant cell where photosynthesis happens

stomata: Tiny openings, mostly under a leaf, that let gases in and out

carbon dioxide: A gas in the air; the leaf takes it in to build sugar

oxygen: A gas the leaf gives off while making sugar

sugar: The food a plant makes; it stores the light energy

matter / energy: Stuff that has mass / what makes changes happen (light is energy)

Common mistakes

Your child thought plants take their food, or most of their mass, from the soil. Ask your child what goes into a leaf: light, water and carbon dioxide from the air. Soil gives water and a few minerals, not food.

Your child swapped the gases: in making sugar, a leaf takes in carbon dioxide and gives off oxygen. Ask your child which gas people breathe out, and which gas a leaf uses.

Your child thought light is a material that becomes part of the plant. Light supplies energy; the sugar is built from carbon dioxide and water. Ask your child which arrows carry stuff you could weigh.

Questions parents ask

What is the most common mistake with photosynthesis: how plants make food from light, water and air?

Your child thought plants take their food, or most of their mass, from the soil. Ask your child what goes into a leaf: light, water and carbon dioxide from the air. Soil gives water and a few minerals, not food.

Are these 7th grade science worksheets free to print?

Yes. All 6 printable versions at each level are free to print, with the answer key, and no account is needed.

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