Photosynthesis Process
Storyboard Text
- Absolutely!
- I love plants! Can you tell me how you make make your food?
- It all starts with sunlight.  I have chloroplast cells inside of me. These cells absorb the light, so that I can photosynthesize. I also need water and carbon dioxide. I get the water through my roots, the xylem then transport them to the cells. The carbon dioxide gets into my cells through the stoma. 
- So how do you turn these 3 ingredients into glucose?
-  There are two processes. The first is the light dependent reaction. It starts in the photosystem 2 when the thylakoids in my chloroplast absorb light. The light excites the electrons, which then separate water molecules.  
- What's next?
- Next, high-energy electrons from photosystem 2 move through the electron transport chain. Molecules in this chain use energy from the electrons to transport positively charged hydrogen ions from the stroma to the inner thylakoid  space. Next, photosystem 1 adds energy to electrons from light energy.  The high-energy electrons are picked up by NADP+ to form NADPH. Next is the hydrogen ion movement. Positively charged hydrogen ions fill the thylakoid membrane. This makes the outside of the membrane negatively charged.  Lastly, hydrogen ions pass through ATP synthase, which converts ADP into ATP.
- Oxygen is another product of photosynthesis
- That sound very complicated
- No worries!  The Calvin Cycle is the second part of the process and doesn't require sunlight
- So then, what is the Calvin Cycle?
- Oh no! It getting dark out. How are you going to photosynthesize without sunlight?
- The Calvin Cycle is made up of three steps. The first is Carbon Fixation. This is when 3CO2 combine with RuBp by an enzyme called Rubisco. The carbon is fixed into 6 3-PGA molecules. Next is the Reduction Phase, 6 ATP and 6 NADPH form the 6 3-PGA molecules into 6 high energy GA3P molecules. 1 of these molecules is used to make half of a glucose molecule. Lastly, there is the Reduction Phase in which ATP energy converts the remaining 5 GA3P molecules back into RuBp. This process needs to be repeated twice to produce one glucose molecule.(C6H12O6)
- Who would've though photosynthesis was so complicated?
- That is so cool! Thank you for teaching me! 
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