How Does GCSE Biology - Photosynthesis (2026/27 exams) Work?

Photosynthesis is how plants make their own food using sunlight, water, and air.

Imagine you're a plant living in a sunny garden. You want to grow tall and strong, so you need food, just like you do! But instead of eating snacks from a bag, you use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide (which is the gas we breathe out) to make your own food inside your leaves.

Think of photosynthesis like a kitchen where plants are chefs. The leaves are the kitchen, and chlorophyll (a green pigment in the leaves) is the cook who uses sunlight to turn ingredients into glucose, which is like sugar, the food that helps plants grow.

Here's what happens:

• Sunlight comes from the sky.
• Water travels up from the roots through the stem.
• Carbon dioxide floats in from the air through tiny holes called stomata.

All these ingredients come together in the leaves to make glucose, and oxygen is released as a byproduct, that’s what we breathe in!

So, just like you need food to grow, plants use photosynthesis to get their energy and grow big and strong. 🌿✨