Photosynthesis & Respiration
📋 What it is
Plants make food from sunlight (photosynthesis); all cells release that energy (respiration).
🗣️ Coach says
Two opposite deals power life. In photosynthesis, plants take sunlight + water + CO₂ and make sugar (food) + oxygen. In respiration, cells burn that sugar with oxygen to release energy. One stores the Sun’s energy; the other spends it.
🧠 Memory hook
Photosynthesis STORES sun-energy as sugar; respiration SPENDS it. Opposites that fit together.
😂 Giggle
What did the biologist wear to impress their date?
Designer genes!
😲 Whoa!
The oxygen you just breathed was made by a plant or algae doing photosynthesis — every second breath you take comes from ocean algae.
✅ Quick check: Which process makes the oxygen you breathe — photosynthesis or respiration?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Photosynthesis — plants and algae release oxygen while making sugar from sunlight.
Photosynthesis produces oxygen as a by-product; respiration consumes it.
🪄 Trick question: Do plants ONLY do photosynthesis and never respiration?
Careful — think it through, then reveal.
No — plants do BOTH; they photosynthesise in light AND respire all the time to use their stored sugar.
Every living cell respires; photosynthesis is an extra job only producers do.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Breathe out onto a cold mirror. You’re releasing water and CO₂ from respiration — the exact gases a plant would take back in.