Energy Transfer and Food Chains Mrs Lezama 6 th Grade

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to define and construct a food chain. Students will be able to trace the path of energy through a food chain. Students will be able to build a food pyramid and explain how it functions in terms of energy transfer at each level

Warm up Which group of organisms would all be found living in a tropical rain forest? (6.L.2.3) A Lizards, insects, cacti, kangaroos B Vines, palm trees, tree frogs, monkeys C Evergreens, moose, weasels, mink D Lichens, mosses, caribou, polar bears

“What did you eat for dinner last night?” 1. Of the consumers, which are animals that eat plants? 3. Which are animals that eat other animals? 4. Which eat both? 5. Are there any decomposers? (Mushrooms, crab, shrimp, and lobster are likely to be the only decomposers.)

Fill out key word list Herbivore: Carnivore: Omnivore: Decomposer:

Activity Each group of 2 receives a set of organism cards. Your first task is to color code the organisms on their cards by their role in the food chain. Green = producers, yellow = herbivores, red = carnivores, orange = omnivores, blue = decomposer.

Food Pyramid 1. What do you think the picture represents? 2. Why there are more grasses than rabbits and why there are more rabbits than bobcats. It is showing a transfer of energy from one level of the food chain to the next. Any one organism can’t transfer the energy it gets from its food directly to the next organism in the food chain because it needs to use some of that energy itself to grow, reproduce and survive.

Wrap Up Come up with 1 example of a food chain to share with the class.