wunder beta☀️ Energy from the Sun to Food
Follow energy on its amazing journey from the Sun, into green plants, and along a food chain to the animals that eat them.
What you’ll learn
- Power from the SunUnderstand that the Sun is the source of energy and that plants are producers that capture it.Almost all the energy for life on Earth begins with the Sun. Sunlight reaches our planet every day, and plants are the only living things that can catch it and turn it into food. Because they make their own food, plants are called producers, quietly trapping sunlight in their green leaves.
- Plants Make FoodExplain photosynthesis: carbon dioxide plus water plus light energy makes glucose and oxygen in chloroplasts.Green leaves contain chloroplasts, which hold chlorophyll that captures sunlight. In photosynthesis, a plant takes in carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil and uses light energy to make glucose, a sugar it uses as food, releasing oxygen. The glucose stores the Sun's energy for the plant to grow.
- Energy on the MoveTrace how energy flows along a food chain and understand that arrows point in the direction energy flows.Animals are consumers because they cannot make their own food and must eat. A food chain shows energy passing from a producer, like grass, to a grasshopper, then a frog, then a snake. Arrows in a food chain point in the direction energy flows, toward the living thing that is doing the eating.
Questions this course answers
Where does almost all the energy for life on Earth begin?
The Sun is the starting point for nearly all energy on Earth, because its light is what plants use to make food.
Why are plants called producers?
Plants are producers because they make, or produce, their own food by catching the Sun's energy.
In photosynthesis, what does a plant take in to make food?
During photosynthesis a plant takes in carbon dioxide and water, and uses light energy to make glucose and oxygen.
Which gas do plants release during photosynthesis?
Plants give out oxygen during photosynthesis, which is the gas that animals and people breathe.
What do we call animals that cannot make their own food and must eat other living things?
Animals are consumers because they consume, or eat, other living things to get energy.
In a food chain, which way does an arrow point?
An arrow points in the direction energy flows, which is toward the living thing doing the eating.
Grounded in trusted sources
- BBC Bitesize
- Britannica Kids
- National Geographic Kids
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