How I teach the relationship between photosynthesis & respiration in plants (without PowerPoint)

The relationship between photosynthesis and respiration—within an individual plant—isn't easy for students. Often I find, they've been bombarded with the respiration equation to have them memorise it, yet still don't fully grasp its meaning.

Then photosynthesis comes along and when they're shown that the equation is the reverse of respiration, it's just like you've reversed the word order of a peculiar sentence. The meaning of that reversion isn't clear. A stock and flow diagram can make a huge difference. Consider this one that I show to my students (14–16):

🚨 Update: I've moved to a new home! You can read the newest, updated version of this article on my new website here: https://christianmooreanderson.com/how-i-teach-the-relationship-between-photosynthesis-respiration-in-plants/