Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration Foldable

Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
Side by Side Foldable cover

If it is one thing I want my biology students to remember when they leave my class is to understand the interconnectedness of the two major energy systems in living organisms - photosynthesis and cellular respiration. This is the circle of life (imagine the theme song from The Lion King playing here).

For this foldable, take a sheet of paper, fold almost in half in order to allow a little overhang to serve as the folding closure. Cut down the middle to form the two half flaps.

I have also done this assignment in interactive notebooks.

Inside of Foldable 

As you can see, they used their textbooks to draw the diagrams of the chloroplast and mitochondria including all labels. Inside they diagramed the Light Dependent and Light Independent processes of photosynthesis and the three stages of respiration - glycolysis, Krebs (Citric Acid) cycle, and electron transport chain. The last diagram is essentially the carbon cycle showing how plants (which carry out both functions) and animals are related. Plants capture energy from the sun in order to make ATP which provides the energy for the chemical reactions converting carbon dioxide and water into sugars. The plants can then use those sugars (more importantly for us humans who eat the plants) to carry out cellular respiration to make ATP to provide the energy for all of life's processes - growth, reproduction, movement, etc.

"And yes, I want you to use color!" - answer to most commonly asked student question

Energy Drinks and Cellular Respiration

Where do we living things get our energy from? Food of course which is broken down from the large polymers (carbohydrates, fats, or proteins) into their monomers. All of these monomers can then some how make their way into the Krebs or Citric Acid Cycle within the mitochondria of the cell. But is that the only way to get energy? What do students think? What about these Energy Drinks that are marketed and targeted especially at the age group I teach (high school)? Well let's take a look. A great web quest I found is called "A Can of Bull." It is a case study into a variety of products, their ingredients and how they work. Great place to start them looking, thinking, and talking about the use or misuse of Energy Drink Products.
I plan to follow up the web quest with having them research, read, and summarize a current event article about some aspect of energy drinks (health effects, marketing, regulating, etc). Then we will sit down for a Fishbowl discussion to share their findings and debate the topic.