Materials

• Jiffy biscuit mix
• Brown sugar
• Water
• An electric skillet
• Green food coloring
• Disposable cups
• Measuring spoons
• Mixing spoons 
• 3 large bowls
• Apples, peaches or other fruit grown in South Carolina
• A live plant
• Construction paper (brown, green and black)
• Scissors
• Tape

Top

Procedure

1. (If there are no plants in the classroom, bring some in for this activity.) Have students observe the plants and think about how plants get the food they need to live. Do they eat other animals or plants?  Explain the term "producer" and tell them that all plants are producers. Explain that like a cook making food, plants need certain ingredients to produce the food they need. Tell the students they will pretend to be plants and, like plants, will mix ingredients together to make their own food.
2. Have students think about plants in the classroom and discuss what plants need in order to survive. Discuss with the students how plants need air, water, nutrients and sunlight. Talk about the adaptations of plants that allow them to collect these things. Roots collect water and nutrients from the soil. Leaves collect air and sunlight. By collecting these four things, the plant has the ingredients it needs to make its own food.
3. Have three students come to the front of the classroom and designate one to be air, one to be water and one to be nutrients. These students will wear signs around their necks so that the class will remember what they represent. The rest of the students will pretend to be plants and will sit at their desks.
4. Give the students who are plants a disposable cup, a spoon and construction paper to cutout shapes to represent leaves and roots. Have them tape the construction paper leaves to the side of the cup and the construction paper roots to the bottom of the cup. Add a drop of green food coloring to each students cup to represent chlorophyll, and explain the importance of this green substance to allow plants to produce food. Tell the students that because they are plants, they are producers who need to make their own food, and thus must gather their ingredients to do so. They will gather these from the students representing air, nutrients and water. Give the student representing air a large plastic bowl containing Jiffy biscuit mix. Give the student representing water a large plastic bowl containing water. Give the student representing nutrients a large plastic bowl containing brown sugar. (If you want to improve the end taste of the producer pancakes, mix a little cinnamon into the brown sugar before the activity begins.) 
5. Have the air, water and nutrients students sit at the front of the classroom with the bowls. Tell the "plant" students they will be simulating how a plant makes its own food. They will bring their cup up to the front of the classroom to receive the "ingredients" they need. Each "plant" student will shake the leaves on their cups (the adaptation used to collect air) to indicate to  the "air" students to spoon two spoonfuls of biscuit mix in their cup. Each "plant" student will shake the roots on his cup (the adaptation used to collect water) to indicate to the "water" student to spoon one spoonful of water in their cup. Each "plant" student will  shake the roots on his cup (the adaptation used to collect nutrients) to indicate to the "nutrients" student to spoon two spoonfuls of brown sugar in the cup. The "plant" students will then stir these  ingredients together with a spoon. 

   The teacher may want to write these directions on the board:

   2 spoonfuls of air, 2 spoonfuls of nutrients and 2 spoonfuls of water. 

   If students are curious as to why these amounts are used, it does not correlate to actual amounts used by the plants (see Background Information). The measurements allow the students to produce something that they themselves can eat. Use teaspoons or tablespoons, depending on how much pancake batter you want.

6. After the "plant" students have acquired the air, nutrients and water, ask the students what the mixture is missing to make it a finished food product. The answer is heat. Heat is energy, and like cooks need heat to turn batter into pancakes, plants need the energy of the sun to turn those ingredients into food. Have the students drop their mixture on the electric skillet. Tell the students that the electric skillet represents the sun and the energy the sun gives off that is necessary for a plant to produce food.
7. Cook the batter like normal pancakes and have the students observe the producer pancakes as they cook. Tell the students that the bubbles in the pancakes represent oxygen escaping and that the steam being released represents lost water vapor, both products of photosynthesis. When the producer pancakes are done, allow the students to eat the pancakes. Tell the students that the food made by plants are sugars. Explain how the plant uses the food it makes to give it the energy it needs to perform its life functions. Explain some of the ways a plant stores its food energy. Give the students some fruit to eat so they can taste the sugar. Explain to the students that all of the energy in a food chain comes originally from the sun and can only be used by animals when it is converted into food by plants. Without producers, animals would not be able to survive.

1. Students will observe actual plants to reinforce how producers acquire food. A plant (or 2 or 3 plants) with many leaves, such as a philedendron, should be placed on the windowsill. Students should tape black construction paper around certain leaves while leaving other leaves exposed to the light.
2. Based on the producer pancakes activity, students should predict what will happen to the leaves that are in direct sunlight as compared to the leaves that are covered by construction paper. How will having sunlight and having no sunlight affect the different leaves? Students will write their predictions in their journals.
3. Students will make observations in their journals of the plant leaves over the course of two weeks. Students will keep a record of when they water the plant and what general changes they have noticed occurring to the leaves.
4. At the end of two weeks of observations have students compare their observations with their original predictions. How do they match up? Have students discuss and write their ideas in their journals. If plants are producers, what is happening to the leaves that do not get sunlight? Have students discuss and write their ideas in their journals.

Top

Experiment variations
For advanced students or students in the fifth grade, explain more in depth the process of photosynthesis. The biscuit mix represents carbon dioxide and this mixes with water and then, through the energy of the sun, this is converted into sugar and oxygen. Mix with amounts that correspond to the amounts used in photosynthesis, six spoonfuls of biscuit mix to represent six molecules of carbon dioxide and six spoonfuls of water to represent six molecules of water. The sugar that is mixed in the bowl still represents nutrients, but explain that though nutrients are necessary for the survival of the plant, they are not actually used in the process of photosynthesis.

Top

Follow-up questions

1. What would we eat if there were no plants to make food?
2. If humans "make" food, are they producers? Is cooking the same thing as what a plant does to produce its own food?