Place on your desk:
iPads—keep closed
Crayons or coloring pencils
Pencil
Energy Flow Through an
Ecosystem
Food Chains, Food Webs, Energy
Pyramids
Do you like to
play games,
run, jump, or
dance?
If you do, you
will need
ENERGY!
Today we can:
•Review that organisms can be
classified as producers, consumers,
scavengers, or decomposers
•Create a food chain or food web
•Create an energy pyramid to explain
how energy is transferred through an
ecosystem
•Begins with the SUN
•Photosynthesis
Remember: “It Starts With Producers” Song
• The chemical reaction by which green
plants use water and carbon dioxide and
light from the sun to make glucose.
• ENERGY is stored in glucose; glucose is
stored as starch.
Organisms that can make
glucose during
photosynthesis are called
PRODUCERS.
Producers use most of the
energy they make for
themselves.
The energy that is not used by
producers can be passed on to
organisms that cannot make
their own energy.
Organisms that cannot make their
own energy are called
CONSUMERS.
Remember the song:
“Energy Roles”
Consumers that eat producers to
get energy:
• Are first order or
primary
consumers
• Are herbivores
(plant-eaters)
Most of the energy the primary
consumer gets from the producer
is used by the consumer.
Some of the energy moves
into the atmosphere as heat.
Some energy in the primary
consumer is not lost to the
atmosphere or used by the
consumer itself.
This energy is available for
another consumer.
A consumer that eats another
consumer for energy:
• Is called a secondary
or second order
consumer
• May be a carnivore
or a omnivore
• May be a predator
• May be a scavenger
Most of the energy the secondary
consumer gets from the primary
consumer is used by the
secondary consumer.
Some of the energy is lost
as heat, but some energy
is stored and can passed
on to another consumer.
A consumer that eats a consumer
that already ate a consumer:
• Is called a third order
or tertiary consumer
• May be a carnivore
or a omnivore
• May be a predator
• May be a scavenger
Consumers that eat producers &
other consumers
• Are called omnivores
• Omnivores eat plants
and animals
Consumers that hunt & kill other
consumers are called
predators.
They animals that are hunted &
killed are called
prey.
Consumers that eat other
consumers that have already
died are called
scavengers.
The transfer of energy from sun to
producer to primary consumer to
secondary consumer to tertiary
consumer can be shown in a
FOOD CHAIN.
Food Chain
Song!
Activity
Do you ONLY eat ONE kind of food?
Neither do most organisms!
This leads to a
Food Web
Food Webs:
• Are interconnected
food chains
• They show the
feeding relationships
in an ecosystem
ACTIVITY
What would happen if a disease
wiped out a population of
consumers?
Would it affect the food chain of
other living things?
This interdependence of the populations within
a food chain helps to maintain the balance of
plant and animal populations within a
community. For example, when there are too
many zebras; there will be insufficient shrubs
and grass for all of them to eat. Many zebras will
starve and die. Fewer zebras means more time
for the shrubs and grass to grow to maturity and
multiply. Fewer zebras also mean less food is
available for the lions to eat and some lions will
starve to death. When there are fewer lions, the
zebra population will increase.
Another way of showing the
transfer of energy in an
ecosystem is the
ENERGY PYRAMID.
Energy pyramids show
• That the amount of
available energy
decreases down the food
chain
• It takes a large number of
producers to support a
small number of primary
consumers
• It takes a large number of
primary consumers to
support a small number
of secondary consumers
Go to my Weekly Plans on my website
Complete the interactive activities in
order
Pyramid Activity
Food chains
Food Webs #1
Food Webs #2
In small groups, you will create one of the
following:
Food Chain
Food Web
Energy Pyramid
Remember the jobs we created last time.
Everyone in the group contributes!!
In the next class, you will share these as part of
your
presentation with your Biome Posters
Today we can:
•Review that organisms can be
classified as producers, consumers,
scavengers, or decomposers
•Create a food chain or food web
•Create an energy pyramid to explain
how energy is transferred through an
ecosystem
Complete
Exit Ticket