Florida SC.3.L.17.2
The Standard
Recognize that plants use energy from the Sun, air, and water to make their own food.
Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify sunlight, air, and water as inputs plants use to make food. They explain that plants make their own food rather than eating soil.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a plant diagram, students label sunlight as the energy source and show air and water entering the plant. They explain that these inputs help the plant make food.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think soil, fertilizer, or water is the plant’s food. They may also think sunlight is food instead of an energy source used to make food.
How to Assess It
- Give students a plant diagram and ask, “What three things help this plant make food, and what job does sunlight have?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups Sun, air, water, and plant cards, then have them arrange the cards with arrows to model how plants make food.
Ask students to write two sentences answering, “Why is soil not the same as food for a plant?”
Play Plant Food Relay, where students race to collect the correct Sun, air, and water cards while leaving distractor cards behind.
Have students plan a greenhouse location and explain how the plants will receive sunlight, air, and water for food production.
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Printable SC.3.L.17.2 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SC.4.L.17.2
Explain that animals, including humans, cannot make their own food and that when animals eat plants or other animals, the energy stored in the food source is pa...
- SC.4.E.6.3
Recognize that humans need resources found on Earth and that these are either renewable or nonrenewable.
- SC.4.L.17.3
Trace the flow of energy from the Sun as it is transferred along the food chain through the producers to the consumers.
- SC.1.L.17.1
Through observation, recognize that all plants and animals, including humans, need the basic necessities of air, water, food, and space.
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