Food Chain Project
By: Frank Klauder
What is a Food Chain?
• All living things depend on each other to
survive.
• Who do you depend on?
Food Chain Introduction
• All organisms on earth rely on each other
because they are all members of food chains.
• A food chain shows the relationships among
plants, animals, and other organisms in an
ecosystem.
• Food chains outline who eats what.
• As each portion of the chain consumes the
part before it in the chain, energy is
transferred from one organism to the next.
Food Chain Continued
• In a food chain “energy” sometimes refers to
food and water, and other times refers to
sunlight or other types of energy.
• Food chains maintain the balance of life on
earth.
• If one element of a food chain disappears or
increases greatly, the entire food chain will be
affected.
How does a food chain work?
• All food chains begin with the sun.
• The sun provides energy for plants to grow
and light required by people and other
animals to function.
Trophic Level
• An organism’s position in a food chain is called
its trophic level. (you can think of it as a food
level)
• Producers are plants, comprising the first
trophic level in a food chain.
• Producers are unique because they use the
energy from the sun plus water and carbon
dioxide to create food for themselves through
a process called photosynthesis.
Producers
• Because they make food for themselves
automatically, producers are called
autotrophs.
• Plants are called “producers” because they
produce the energy for all other members of a
food chain.
• Examples of producers include flowers,
grasses, and leaves.
Consumers
• Members of high food chain levels are called
consumers.
• Consumers do exactly what their name
implies they consume (eat).
Consumers
• Herbivores : eat only plants or plant products.
Examples of herbivores are mice,
grasshoppers, rabbits, deer, beavers, moose,
cows, and goats.
Consumers
• Carnivores: eat only other animals. Examples
of carnivores are foxes, frogs, snakes, spiders,
and hawks.
Consumers
• Omnivores: eat both plants and animals.
People are omnivores because we eat both
plants (like fruits and vegetables) and animals
(like chicken or beef). Other examples of
omnivores are bears, monkeys, and turtles .
3 Different levels of Consumer
• Primary consumers are those that feed directly
from producers. Because they only eat plants
they are herbivores. (Squirrel, elk, grasshoppers)
• Secondary consumers feed on primary
consumers. Secondary consumers can be
carnivores or omnivores depending on their
environment. (birds, frogs, cats)
• Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers,
and can be carnivores or omnivores. (wolves, and
owls)
Decomposers
• Decomposers are the last link in the food
chain.
• As each member of the food chain dies,
decomposers eat it, break down “dead stuff”,
and return the nutrients to the soil.
Creating your own food chain model
1. Begin by cutting out the five organisms on
your sheet.
2. Glue each picture to the appropriate tube.
(Owl largest, Snake, mouse, grasshopper, and
grass on the smallest).
3. Place tubes back together.
The Food Chain Story
• There are many different food chains on earth.
This one features the Great horned owl at the
top. Other food chains work just like this one
but with other plants and animals.
• All food chains begin when the energy of the
sun reaches the earth. The energy carried in
the sun’s light, along with water and carbon
dioxide, allows plants to grow, like the grass
on your smallest tube.
Story continued
• The grass is eaten by primary consumers, such
as the grasshopper on your second tube.
(Students will now make grasshopper eat
grass)
• All primary consumers are herbivores that eat
only plants.
Story continued
• The grasshopper is then eaten by a mouse(on
the next largest tube), a secondary consumer.
(students now have mouse eat grasshopper)
• Secondary consumers can be either carnivores
or omnivores, but not herbivores.
• Carnivores eat only meat and omnivores eat
both meat and plants.
Story continued
• Next, the mouse is eaten by the snake.
(students now have snake eat mouse).
• The snake can be considered either a
secondary or tertiary consumer. If it were at
the top of the food chain it would be tertiary,
but since we know it is not we will consider it
a secondary consumer.
Story continued
• Finally, the Great horned owl eats the snake.
(students will now have the owl eat the
snake).
• The owl is a tertiary consumer and resides at
the top of the food chain (it isn’t eaten by
another animal in our food chain).
Story continued
• Eventually, the owl will die and its body will be
decomposed by bacteria and fungi.
• Through decomposition, nutrients from the
owls body will go back into the soil and
provide nutrients that will allow many new
plants (producers) to grow, beginning the
cycle again.
Your food chain story
1. In your journal retell the food chain story you
just acted out with the tubes.
2. Use vocabulary words like primary
consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary
consumers, producers, carnivores,
herbivores, and omnivores. Plus any others
you would like to use.
3. Draw an illustration of the food chain story
you just acted out.