Here's a fun fact: all the energy found in fossil fuels comes from solar energy. So does all the energy (calories) in everything you eat. Ultimately, every living thing on the planet runs on solar energy, from a blue whale deep in the sea, to a coral reef beneath him, to the pigs on the farm, to the corn growing in the field, to the grass growing on your lawn. And all of that energy, that life is absolutely, utterly and totally dependent upon one crucial chemical process to keep life on Earth going: photosynthesis.
And all of that energy those plants create which is then utilized by animals and people are all used in essentially one way: combustion. Whether that's you eating the calories in a carrot or an ear of corn, or a cutlet of meat which ate corn or soy or grazed on grass in the fields, and then burning those calories. Or by burning the plant matter, like wood, more directly. Fire is how the energy created in plants through Photosynthesis is used.
So to recap, photosynthesis is the process by which plants turn sunlight into energy, and burning the plant (or the calories digested from it) is how we access that energy, in one form or another. And Eagle Grove middle school science teacher Jordan Omvig made it his mission earlier this month to teach his 5th and 6th students about these crucial chemical processes.
At first the 5th graders "struggled to block out enough light for some to work," said Omvig, "but the kids got creative to get it to work."
As for the 6th graders? "Yes, their favorite part was setting things on fire," Omvig remarked. And yet, "we made it through without any burns to the kids or the building, so I would say it was a success."
Photos via Facebook/RBMS.
