• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Plants make food from air and water). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. How plants grow: which statement is true? (Plants do not need light to make food. / Plants take in carbon dioxide through tiny holes in their leaves. / Plants get most of their mass by eating soil. / The energy in plant food comes from the soil.) → Plants take in carbon dioxide through tiny holes in their leaves.Prompt: Where does a tree's wood really come from?
2. In a famous experiment, a willow tree grew by 74 kg in 5 years, but the soil lost only about 0.06 kg. What does this show? (Trees do not grow. / The tree's mass did not mainly come from the soil. / The soil got heavier. / Trees eat soil.) → The tree's mass did not mainly come from the soil.Prompt: Compare how much the tree gained with how much soil was lost.
3. How plants grow: which statement is NOT true? (Plants make their own food using light energy. / The energy in plant food comes from the soil. / Roots take in water and minerals. / Most of a plant's mass comes from carbon dioxide in the air and from water.) → The energy in plant food comes from the soil.Prompt: One sentence repeats an old idea that experiments disproved.

• Bring in a plant that has been kept in the dark next to one in the light, and ask what happened.
• Share the objective: Photosynthesis. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: What does chlorophyll do?
• Step 1: Chlorophyll absorbs light energy, which is used to make glucose.
• Step 2: So the answer is: absorbs light energy
• Answer: absorbs light energy
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. What does chlorophyll do? (makes the cell wall / carries oxygen in blood / stores water / absorbs light energy) → absorbs light energyPrompt: It is the green pigment in leaves.
2. Pondweed in light gives off 30 bubbles of oxygen in 2 minutes. What is the rate in bubbles per minute? → 15Prompt: Rate = amount ÷ time.

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Photosynthesis: which statement is NOT true? (Plants only respire at night. / Photosynthesis needs light. / Chlorophyll is found in chloroplasts. / Photosynthesis takes in energy (it is endothermic).) → Plants only respire at night.Prompt: Remember the word equation.
2. In which part of a plant cell does photosynthesis happen? (chloroplasts / nucleus / cell wall / vacuole) → chloroplastsPrompt: This part contains the green pigment.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-7.