Lesson plan by OtisamLMS · OtisamLMS
| Subject | Integrated Science · SHS |
| Year | SHS 1 |
| Term / week | Term 1 · Week 6 |
| Lessons this week | 2 × 80 minutes |
| Class size | 40 |
| Strand | Systems |
| Sub-strand | Plant nutrition |
| Content standard | Learners explain how green plants make their own food and investigate the conditions it needs. |
| Learning indicators | State the raw materials and products of photosynthesis Carry out a fair test to show that light is needed for starch to form in a leaf Write the word equation for photosynthesis |
| Core competencies | Critical thinking and problem solving Collaboration Digital literacy (recording results in a table) |
| Key words | chlorophyll, starch, glucose, carbon dioxide, fair test, variable, control |
| Resources | A potted plant kept in the dark for two days, and one kept in sunlight Aluminium foil or black paper, paper clips Iodine solution, ethanol, hot water in a flask, white tiles Safety goggles |
| Phase | Teacher and learner activities |
| 1. Starter | Hold up a mango and ask: where did all this mass come from? The soil? The water? Learners vote with a show of hands, then hear that a large tree takes very little from the soil. Leave the question open; the lesson will answer it. |
| 2. Main activities | 1. Revise the starch test with iodine on a slice of yam or cassava: blue-black means starch is present. 2. Explain the plan: cover part of one leaf on the sunlit plant with foil the day before (done in advance) and compare it with an uncovered part. 3. Groups follow the leaf-testing steps on the card: boil the leaf briefly in water, soften it in warm ethanol (no flames near the ethanol), rinse, then add iodine. The teacher demonstrates the ethanol step first. 4. Groups record the colour of the covered and uncovered parts, and the leaf from the dark plant, in a results table. 5. Discussion: which part is the control? What was the one variable changed? Build the word equation on the board from what learners say: carbon dioxide + water → (light, chlorophyll) → glucose + oxygen. |
| 3. Reflection | Return to the mango. Each group writes a two-line answer to 'Where did the mass come from?' using the words carbon dioxide and glucose, and one group reads theirs out. |
Short quiz: label the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis on a leaf diagram; explain why the covered part stayed brown with iodine; name one thing that made the test fair.
Support: give a partly completed results table and word equation with gaps.
Extension: plan a test to show that carbon dioxide is needed, naming the control and the variable.
Write a paragraph explaining to a farmer why leaves should not be removed from young maize plants.
Prepare the dark plant two days ahead. Keep ethanol well away from any flame; warm it in a beaker standing in hot water from a flask.
Printed from https://otisam.com/lesson-plans/what-do-plants-need-to-make-food-investigating-photosynthesis