Aerobic Respiration
Explain aerobic respiration as the process by which organisms release energy from glucose using oxygen, producing carbon dioxide and water; write and interpret the word equation: glucose + oxygen → carbon dioxide + water
What a learner can do afterwards
- Writes and explains the word equation for aerobic respiration
- Explains where in the cell aerobic respiration takes place (mitochondria)
- Links aerobic respiration to why breathing rate and heart rate increase during exercise
- Explains that respiration is not the same as breathing
The lesson
You already know that breathing moves air in and out of your lungs, and that oxygen passes into your blood while carbon dioxide passes out. Respiration is a different process. It happens inside every cell in your body, and it is how cells release the energy stored in glucose.
This reaction happens inside tiny parts of a cell called mitochondria. Muscle cells that work hard, like the ones in your legs when you run, are packed with mitochondria because they need a steady supply of energy.
After PE, Priya's heart is pounding and she is breathing fast. Her muscle cells are respiring harder than usual, using up glucose and oxygen quickly to release energy. Her heart beats faster to deliver more oxygen and glucose, and her breathing rate rises to bring in more oxygen and remove the extra carbon dioxide.
Respiration is not the same as breathing. Breathing gets oxygen into your blood. Respiration is the chemical reaction inside your cells that uses that oxygen to release energy.
Aerobic respiration happens in the mitochondria: glucose and oxygen react to release energy, making carbon dioxide and water, and it speeds up when your body works harder.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.