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Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis – Important Concepts, Common Misconceptions, and Learning Activities
These Teacher Notes summarize basic concepts and information related to energy, ATP, cellular respiration, and photosynthesis. These Teacher Notes also review common misconceptions and suggest a sequence of learning activities designed to develop student understanding of important concepts and overcome any misconceptions.
The attached files describe the key concepts, common misconceptions and suggested learning activities (in Word and PDF formats).
Attachment | Size |
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CellularRespPhotoOverview.docx | 4.38 MB |
CellularRespPhotoOverview.pdf | 572.8 KB |
Download Minds-On Activities for Teaching Biology
Introduction and Activities Listing
Intro and Biological Molecules
- Characteristics of Life
- Levels of Organization in Biology (NGSS)
- Introduction to Proteins and DNA (NGSS)
- Enzymes Help Us Digest Food (NGSS; hands-on)
- A Scientific Investigation – What types of food contain starch and protein? (NGSS; hands-on)
- Coronaviruses – Introduction (NGSS)
- Who Took Jerell’s iPod? -- An Organic Compound Mystery (hands-on)
- Is Yeast Alive? (hands-on)
- Macromolecules Jeopardy
Cell Structure and Function
- Cell Structure and Function – Major Concepts and Learning Activities
- Cells – How do they carry out the activities of life? (NGSS)
- Why do some plants grow in odd shapes? (NGSS)
- Introduction to Osmosis (NGSS; hands-on)
- Cell Membrane Structure and Function (NGSS; hands-on)
- Cell Vocabulary Review Game
Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis
- Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis - Key Concepts and Activities
- How do organisms use energy? (NGSS)
- Using Models to Understand Cellular Respiration (NGSS)
- Using Models to Understand Photosynthesis (NGSS)
- Photosynthesis, Cellular Respiration and Plant Growth (NGSS; hands-on)
- Food, Physical Activity, and Body Weight (NGSS)
- How do muscles get the energy they need for athletic activity? (NGSS)
- Alcoholic Fermentation in Yeast – A Bioengineering Design Challenge (NGSS; hands-on)
- Plant Growth Puzzle (NGSS)
- Where does a tree’s mass come from? (NGSS)
- Photosynthesis Investigation (NGSS; hands-on)
Cell Division
- Mitosis and the Cell Cycle (NGSS; hands-on)
- Mitosis and the Cell Cycle (NGSS)
- Meiosis and Fertilization – Understanding How Genes Are Inherited (NGSS; hands-on)
- Understanding How Genes are Inherited via Meiosis and Fertilization (NGSS)
- Comparing Mitosis and Meiosis
- What causes melanoma and other types of cancer? (NGSS)
- Mistakes in Meiosis – Down Syndrome or Embryo Death (NGSS)
- Mitosis, Meiosis and Fertilization Vocabulary Review Game
Genetics
- Genetics Concepts and Activities (NGSS)
- Genetics (NGSS; hands-on)
- Genetics Intro – Family Members (NGSS)
- Genetics Sickle Cell Anemia and Trait (NGSS)
- Genetics Probability – Sex Ratios (NGSS)
- Mistake in copying DNA & Dwarfism (NGSS)
- Soap Opera Genetics (NGSS)
- Were the babies switched? The Genetics of Blood Types (NGSS; hands-on)
- Dragon Genetics I (hands-on)
- Dragon Genetics II (hands-on)
- Learning about Genetic Disorders
- Genetics Vocabulary Review Game
- Genetics Jeopardy
Molecular Biology
- Molecular Biology: Major Concepts and Learning Activities (NGSS)
- DNA (NGSS; hands-on)
- DNA Function, Structure and Replication (NGSS)
- How Genes Can Cause Disease - Introduction to Transcription and Translation (NGSS; hands-on)
- How Genes Can Cause Disease - Understanding Transcription and Translation (NGSS)
- UV, Mutations and DNA Repair (NGSS; hands-on)
- What types of mutations cause more vs. less severe muscular dystrophy? (NGSS)
- Making Red Blood Cells (NGSS)
- Genetic Engineering Challenge – Preventing Vitamin A Deficiency (NGSS)
- Gene Editing with CRISPR-Cas – Potential Sickle Cell Anemia Cure (NGSS)
- Molecular Biology Vocabulary Review Game
Evolution
- Resources for Teaching and Learning about Evolution
- Evolution by Natural Selection (NGSS; hands-on)
- What is natural selection? (NGSS)
- Natural Selection and the Peppered Moth (NGSS)
- How have mutations and natural selection affected fur color in mice? (NGSS)
- How Whales Evolved (NGSS)
- How Eyes Evolved – Analyzing the Evidence (NGSS)
- How does evolution result in similarities and differences? (NGSS; hands-on)
- What is a species? (NGSS)
- Coronavirus Evolution and the COVID-19 Pandemic (NGSS)
- Evolution and Adaptations (NGSS)
Ecology
- Ecology Concepts and Learning Activities (NGSS)
- Exponential and Logistic Population Growth Models vs. Complex Reality (NGSS)
- Some Similarities between the Spread of Infectious Disease and Population Growth (NGSS; hands-on)
- Stability and Change in Biological Communities (NGSS)
- Food Webs, Energy Flow, Carbon Cycle and Trophic Pyramids (NGSS)
- Food Webs (NGSS)
- Carbon Cycles and Energy Flow through Ecosystems (NGSS)
- Trophic Pyramids (NGSS)
- Introduction to Global Warming (NGSS)
- Food and Climate Change – How can we feed a growing world population without increasing global warming? (NGSS)
- Coral Bleaching (NGSS)
- Global Warming (NGSS) (NGSS)
- Resources for Teaching about Climate Change
- The Ecology of Lyme Disease (NGSS)
Human Physiology and Health
- Negative Feedback, Homeostasis, and Positive Feedback, with Breathing Experiment (NGSS; hands-on)
- Homeostasis, Negative Feedback, and Positive Feedback (NGSS)
- How do food molecules reach our muscles? (NGSS)
- How do we Sense the Flavors of Food? (NGSS; hands-on)
- COVID-19 Vaccines (NGSS)
- Molecular and Evolutionary Biology of HIV/AIDS and Treatment (NGSS)
- Resources for Teaching Cancer Biology
- Carbohydrate Consumption, Athletics, Health – Using Science Process Skills
- Vitamins and Health – Why Experts Disagree
- Regulation of Human Heart Rate (hands-on)
- Should You Drink Sports Drinks? When? Why?
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Comments
Physical science
Cellular respiration and photosynthesis was very interesting and taught me a lot of things
Comment regarding ATP synthesis
While it was fascinating (and slightly embarrassing) to learn that we have known since 2003 that approximately 29 ATP molecules are produced per glucose, not 36-38, I must take issue with the connected statement that "Only about 30%the energy released by the cellular respiration of glucose is captured in the production of ATP..." Despite the drop from 40% to 30%, as is my understanding, CR, and ATP Synthase particularly, is still the most efficient engine as far as retaining energy not lost to heat on Earth.
"Only"
Thanks for your comment. The term "only" is appropriate if you think students would be naïvely comparing the efficiency of ATP production to 100%, but inappropriate if you think students are comparing efficiency to other energy transformations. I leave it to each individual teacher to edit the sentence according to what will be most helpful for their students.
Ingrid
biology
Thank you again for all the help in making biology fun time in our homeschool. My daughter has ADHD but with all the interesting experiments she learns most of the work through the experiments and draws the experimens with her own notes...
2016 revision
The revisions have added information about additional common misconceptions, increased the sophistication and accuracy of the descriptions of chemical energy and energy metabolism, and incorporated descriptions of the updated recommended learning activities.
2014 revision
This overview has been revised to increase focus on the most important concepts, improve clarity and update the suggested learning activities.
biology
this article may help me and my wife to prepare teaching biology in high school, thanks
revised version
The May, 2011 revision incorporates additional information that should be useful in teaching about energy, cellular respiration and photosynthesis.
Ingrid Waldron
biology
this article may help me in teaching biology,.. thanks
revised version
I am preparing a revised version of this overview article, which I believe will be more informative and helpful than the current version. Unfortunately, this new version may not be completely finished and ready to be posted for several weeks. In the meantime, if you would like to see the current draft of this revised version, please send an e-mail to iwaldron@sas.upenn.edu and I will send it to you.
Ingrid Waldron
Biology
Please send my a copy, thanks.
revised version has been posted
The revised version has been posted and is available through the link at the top of this page.
Ingrid Waldron
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