Video narration
Does a plant get its food from the soil? Think of a leaf as a tiny kitchen-but one powered by sunlight instead of a stove. The soil supplies water and minerals, but the leaf makes the sugar the plant needs to grow. Water travels up from the roots, while carbon dioxide enters the leaf from the air. Now the kitchen has its ingredients. Chlorophyll-the green, light-catching pigment-captures light energy. Here's the turn: the leaf is not merely catching sunlight; it uses that energy to build sugar from water and carbon dioxide. That sugar is glucose, which the plant can use or store, while oxygen is released as a byproduct. So, does the plant eat from the soil? No. It runs a solar kitchen, turning water and carbon dioxide into glucose with sunlight's energy. That process is photosynthesis.