• 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 get most of their mass by eating soil. / Plants take in carbon dioxide through tiny holes in their leaves. / Plants take in oxygen and give out only carbon dioxide all day. / 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. Where does the energy stored in the food we eat originally come from? (the Sun / the Moon / the oceans / the soil) → the SunPrompt: Follow the food chain back to a plant.
3. How plants grow: which statement is NOT true? (Plants get most of their mass by eating soil. / Roots take in water and minerals. / Plants make their own food using light energy. / Plants release oxygen into the air.) → Plants get most of their mass by eating 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. Which is a use of the glucose made in photosynthesis? (It is breathed out. / It makes chlorophyll green. / It is turned into soil. / It is stored as starch.) → It is stored as starch.Prompt: Iodine turns blue-black when this store is present.
2. Pondweed in light gives off 32 bubbles of oxygen in 4 minutes. What is the rate in bubbles per minute? → 8Prompt: 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. Pondweed in light gives off 48 bubbles of oxygen in 3 minutes. What is the rate in bubbles per minute? → 16Prompt: Rate = amount ÷ time.
2. Photosynthesis: which statement is NOT true? (Photosynthesis produces oxygen. / Glucose is made in the soil and taken up by roots. / Chlorophyll is found in chloroplasts. / Photosynthesis needs light.) → Glucose is made in the soil and taken up by roots.Prompt: Remember the word equation.

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