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Plants need lots of water. They use this water to make their own food by a very complicated chemical reaction called photosynthesis (photo - sin - thesis).
Plants do not have legs and arms like us, they cannot move independently. When they need food they cannot just hop into the kitchen, raid the fridge or pop out to the drive-thru. Instead a plant makes its own food using a gas that it gets from the air called carbon dioxide, water, and also light energy from the sun.
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Plants get water from the ground; they grow roots which are very specialised parts of a plant designed to soak up as much water as possible from the soil. Water is then drawn up into the stem of the plant and then continues up the stem into the leaves.
The leaves of a plant are very important because this is where they make most of their food. Leaves are also very specialised parts of a plant. They are flat and thin to absorb lots of sunlight, they are connected to the roots of a plant by the stem so they can get lots of water, and they have lots of very tiny holes (pores) on the under side which allow carbon dioxide gas to move into the plant.
Let's take a closer look at some investigations that students have been carrying out into the movement of water through a plant.
