HS-LS1-5
The standard
Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to use a model to show what goes into photosynthesis, what comes out, and how energy changes form. They should connect light, carbon dioxide, and water to glucose and oxygen, with glucose as stored chemical energy. Models can be diagrams, equations, flow charts, or labeled concept maps.
Mastery looks like a clear model with matter tracked correctly and energy shown as light changing into chemical energy in sugar. Students often mix up matter and energy, say plants “make energy,” or forget that carbon dioxide provides the carbon in glucose.
Ways to teach it
- Have students build a photosynthesis model with colored beads for carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, then rearrange atoms into glucose and oxygen.
- Ask students to explain in writing why saying plants “make energy from sunlight” is partly wrong.
- Use an exit ticket where students label inputs, outputs, and energy transformation on a blank photosynthesis diagram.
- Connect the model to a greenhouse by asking what growers add or control to increase sugar production in plants.
Plan a lesson for HS-LS1-5
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Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.