Week 7 · Readings & resources

Week 7 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Biology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 7 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 58–66 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (18–21 min total)

① What goes in, what comes out, and where it happens

Chapter 7, Section “Picture the chloroplast: membranes, stacks, and fluid” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The chloroplast: discs, stacks, and fluid” · Remember: the thylakoid discs catch light, and the fluid stroma around them builds sugar.

Snacking on Sunlight — Ask A Biologist — a friendly illustrated page on how plants make their own food from water, air, and light; read the sections on where the work is done and on whether plants breathe, which cover the chloroplast, chlorophyll, stomata, and autotrophs. Use it while working through the Week-7 module overview. (reading, 4–6 min)
Photosynthesis: Crash Course Biology #8 — CrashCourse — a fast, lively episode that walks the whole process from light to sugar; it goes deeper into the chemistry than this course does, so hold on to the two stages, their order, and their places, and let the extra molecule names go by. (video, 13 min) (captions: creator)
Photosynthesis — Bozeman Science — a steady walk-through that starts with the chloroplast and its pigments and then takes the light reaction and the Calvin cycle in turn; it adds details this course leaves out, so pause after the chloroplast part and name each structure and its job. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)

② Two stages, in order and in place

Chapter 7, Section “Run stage two: the Calvin cycle builds sugar” · Session 1, Segment 4, “Stage two: the Calvin cycle builds sugar” · Remember: stage one in the thylakoid membrane makes ATP and NADPH, and stage two in the stroma spends them to build sugar.

Explainer: How photosynthesis works — Science News Explores — a clear magazine explainer that splits the process into the light-driven part and the Calvin cycle, says where each one runs, and explains why plants look green; it lists more Calvin cycle steps than the chapter, so keep the chapter's three moves in mind as you read. (reading, 5–8 min)
The Calvin Cycle — RicochetScience — a short animation of the Calvin cycle in the stroma, from carbon fixation to the sugar it exports; as you watch, point to the moment ATP and NADPH from the first stage are spent. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)

③ Where a tree's mass and Earth's oxygen come from

Chapter 7, Section “Track the atoms: where the oxygen and the carbon come from” · Session 2, Segment 5, “Tracking the atoms” · Remember: the oxygen a plant gives off comes from water, and the carbon in its sugar comes from the air.

Where Do Trees Get Their Mass? — Veritasium — a short street-interview video that asks people the redwood puzzle from this week's chapter and then answers it; notice which guesses people give before the answer arrives. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)
About the Trees — Redwood National and State Parks — the park service's page on the coast redwood, which opens with how small its seed is and how tall the tree can grow; read the opening paragraphs, then ask yourself where all that wood came from. (reading, 3–5 min)
That Time Oxygen Almost Killed Everything — PBS Eons — a story of how early photosynthesis filled Earth's air with oxygen; it builds on Week 6's work with cellular respiration, the process that came to depend on that oxygen. It covers far more Earth history than this course, so keep your eye on the link between the two processes. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)

④ Reading the floating leaf disk test

Chapter 7, Section “Read the floating leaf disk test” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Reading the floating leaf disk test” · Remember: light drives the oxygen that lifts the disks, and the dark cup is the control that makes the result mean something.

Photosynthesis Lab Walkthrough — Bozeman Science — a bench demonstration of drawing the air out of small leaf disks with a syringe so they sink, the step that sets up this week's lab; watch for why the disks float again once they make oxygen in the light. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Organelle — National Human Genome Research Institute Talking Glossary — the course's free glossary of genetic terms, open at its entry for organelles, the family the chloroplast belongs to; read the short definition, and skip the narration's examples of other organelles, which reach beyond this week. (reading, 1–2 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com