Elementary Science

Science Focus LessonWeek 7

Polk County Public SchoolsLinda Vendur, Senior Coordinator

Week 7 – SC.F.1.2.2 and SC.B.1.2.1Benchmark: SC.F.1.2.2 The student knows how all animals depend

on plants.SC.B.1.2.1 The student knows how to trace the flow

of energy in a system.Essential Question:How does energy move through an

ecosystem? Vocabulary:food chain decomposerproducer food webconsumer

SC.F.1.2.2 The student knows howall animals depend on plants.All organisms need energy. The sun is the main source of energy for Earth. Through photosynthesis, plants convert energy

from the sun into food. Animals depend on plants for their food.

It what other ways do animals, including people, depend on plants?Talk it over with your shoulder partner.

Animals Need Plants

shelter oxygen to breathe

Source of water medicine

Food for energy Protection

Can you think of some ways animals depend on plants for….

SummarizingAnswer the question in your Science

notebook.

What are some ways animals depend on plants?

Give some examples.

How do you depend on plants?

Pass the EnergyThe path of energy from one

organism to another is called a food chain.

Food chains overlap to make food webs.

Think about what you ate for your last meal. Can you trace your meal back to the sun?

Links in the chain…Producers are organisms that use the sun’s

energy to make their own food. Plants are producers.

Consumers are organisms that cannot make their own food. They get their energy to stay alive and grow by eating other organisms. All animals are consumers.

The arrows show how energy flows through an ecosystem.

Why is the grasshopper the primary consumer?

producerPrimaryconsumer consumer consumer

Energy Energy Energy

DecomposersDecomposers are organisms that get energy by

feeding on dead materials and wastes. By doing this, they break material into smaller pieces and put it back into the soil.

Bacteria, mold, mushrooms, earthworms, centipedes, and slugs are all decomposers.

When you see something decaying or rotting, decomposers have been at work.

How do decomposers help recycle minerals and nutrients?

SummarizingWhat would happen to life on Earth if

there were no producers?

Write your answers in yourScience notebook.

SC.B.1.2.1 The Flow of EnergyA food chain shows how energy moves through a

system. The energy flows from the producer to the consumer.

The arrows show the direction the energy moves through the system.

In a food chain the primary role of an organism is to provide energy for other organisms.

Each living thing in a food chain plays a role in the

flow of energy in an ecosystem. The carrot provides energy for the rabbit and

the rabbit provides energy for the fox.

What is the primary role of the rabbit in this food chain? A. to form a habitat B. to find a space to live C. to be a source of water D. to be a source of energy   

 

What is the primary role of the rabbit in this food chain?

While animals have many different roles in life, in a food chain the primary role of the prey (the rabbit) is to provide energy for the predator (the fox).

The energy from the prey is passed to the predator. Pass the Energy, Please!

 

Food manufacturing starts with a seed,And energy waits in a plant to be freed.Like an engine that powers the rest of a train,A plant’s the first link in an energy chain.

Each creature that feeds on a plant is a link,Absorbing energy, quick as a wink.If that feeder, itself, becomes someone’s next meal,It lengthens the chain, like a new link of steel.

And so there’s a pattern of energy passed:A food chain has formed, first hitched to last.Each living thing is a link in a chain with a purpose thatNature can always explain. From Pass the Energy,

Please!

Discuss these questions with your shoulder partner.

Where does a food chain always start?Why does the poet compare a plant to the

engine of a train?What does an animal get from a plant when it

eats it?Why do we call the process a “food chain”?What is the “pattern of energy passed”?How are all the plants and animals in a food

chain linked together?

SummarizingIn your Science notebook draw a food

chain you might find in nature. In your food chain draw and label a producer, two consumers and a decomposer.

Explain how the energyflows through the food chain.

1. Safara cuts out these pictures from a magazine. She must use all four of them to make an example of a food chain.

Part A Using words, show a food chain using all of Safara’s pictures.

Part B Explain the transfer of energy between all four of the organisms in your food chain.

2 A. Identify the decomposer, producer and the consumers.

B. Explain the transfer of energy in this system? C. Where do the tree leaves get their energy?

1. Energy Flow in the food chain

Part A. sun corn chicken human

Part B. The energy from the sun is used by the corn to make food. That energy is transferred to the chicken when it eats the corn. The energy from the chicken goes to the human when he eats the chicken.

2. A. Decomposer – bacteria (Bacteria decomposes the vultures remains after it dies.)Producer – tree leavesConsumers – deer, wolf, vulture (The deer would be the primary consumer since it eats the leaves.)

B. The energy flows from the tree leaves to the deer when it eats the leaves. The energy then flows from the deer to the wolf when it eats the deer and from the wolf to the vulture when the wolf dies and its body is eaten by the vulture. The energy then moves from the vulture to the bacteria when the vulture dies and its body is decomposed by bacteria. The bacteria will return the minerals and nutrients back into the soil for plants use as they grow.

C. The tree uses energy from the sun to produce food through photosynthesis.

SummarizingAnswer the Essential Questionfor this lesson in your notebook.

Essential Question:How does energy move through an ecosystem?