Light in, sugar out
The Photosynthesis Lab puts a plant under a bell jar and pondweed under a lamp, so you can change light, carbon dioxide and temperature and find the limiting factor from the graph. Inside the leaf, the Virtual Living Cell shows the chloroplasts and the vacuole of a palisade cell at work.
Water up, sugar everywhere
The Xylem and Phloem simulator opens a sunflower and an apple tree: water climbs the xylem as the leaves transpire, and sugar moves in the phloem from the leaves to the roots, fruit and buds. The Osmosis Lab explains why: potato cores gain or lose mass by osmosis, and the graph gives their water potential.
Which simulation for which topic
| Topic | Open |
|---|---|
| Photosynthesis and limiting factors | Photosynthesis Lab |
| Transpiration, the xylem and the phloem | Xylem and Phloem |
| Root nodules, nitrogen fixation, how plants get nitrogen | Nitrogen Cycle Simulator |
| Osmosis in plant tissue | Osmosis Lab |
| Plant cells and organelles | Virtual Living Cell |
These are written for primary and secondary school up to A-level: the plant pages use plain language first and add the numbers (rates, water potential, light intensity) as you go deeper.
Updated