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7th grade · Science · Unit 6 of 14

How Plants Work

Roots, leaves, flowers and photosynthesis

What your child practices

The parts of seed plants and what they do, photosynthesis, gas exchange, transpiration and pollination, and how plant structures suit where a plant grows.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: MS-LS1-6 · plant structures and photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Roots take in water, stems hold the plant up, leaves make food, flowers make seeds.
  2. Xylem carries water up from the roots. Phloem carries sugar from the leaves.
  3. Stomata are tiny leaf openings that let carbon dioxide in and oxygen and water vapor out.

Example: Which tubes carry water from the roots to the leaves? Phloem carries sugar. The water tubes are the other kind. Answer: xylem

How Plants Work in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 6 of 14 in 7th grade Science, after Cycles & Succession and before Particles & Mixtures.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which plant is best suited to a very dry, windy field?

    • One with wide, thin leaves and shallow roots
    • One that needs shade all day
    • One that needs flooded soil
    • One with deep taproots and narrow leaves

  2. Question 2

    Which tubes in a plant carry sugar made in the leaves to other parts?

    • Root hairs
    • Xylem
    • Sepals
    • Phloem

  3. Question 3

    After pollen reaches a flower and fertilizes it, what grows from the flower?

    • More chlorophyll
    • Fruit with seeds inside
    • A bigger stem
    • New roots

  4. Question 4

    What does photosynthesis make?

    • Soil and sugar
    • Sugar (food for the plant) and oxygen
    • Carbon dioxide and water
    • Water and nitrogen

  5. Question 5

    A student covers half of a green leaf with black paper for a week. What will she most likely find?

    • The covered part made more sugar
    • The covered part is paler because it got no light
    • The covered part is greener
    • The whole leaf has fallen off

  6. Question 6

    What gives leaves their green color?

    • Stomata
    • Chlorophyll
    • Sugar
    • Pollen

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