1. Where do Minibeasts fit?
Are little things in life as important as big things?
Are caterpillars as important as eagles?
Are snails as important as chickens?
Are mosquitos as important as swans?

2. Animals and plants in a habitat are involved in a feeding relationship
Predators kill other animals for food. The animals that are eaten are usually called prey.
Talk with your group about two examples of prey that a bird might eat?
To understand why minibeasts are important we need to have some understanding of their role in food chains and more accurately in food webs.
Common terms that students will need to know are
feeding relationships-the relationships between animals and plants in a habitat
Habitat-the envrionment which provides

3. prey predator An example.. Which is the predator? Which is the prey?
Copyright © 2001 Troy Bartlett
Have students discuss how a predator needs to have food to eat and that this is usually referred to as prey.
Damselfly- copyright Troy Bartlett-
An example..
Which is the predator?
Which is the prey?

4. But what does the damsel fly eat?
This relationship is the beginning of a food chain
Copyright © 2001 Troy Bartlett
But what does the damsel fly eat?
They probably eat microscopic plankton

5. This is an example of a very simple food chain.
What do the mosquito larvea eat?
Copyright © 2001 Troy Bartlett
Birds eat Damselfly
Copyright © 2003 Troy Bartlett
Have children discuss other food chains that they might know about.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Subject to disclaimers.
The mosquito
larvae eat
plankton
Damselfly eat mosquito larvae and other microscopic organisms in the water
Zoo plankton-frrecopyright-WikiPedia
This is an example of a very simple food chain.

6. A food chain shows us the relationship between animals and plants
Producers
Plants are called producers because they produce their own food. They get their energy from the sun.
Primary Consumer
Animals that get their energy (food) from green plants are called herbivores
Secondary Consumers
Animals that eat herbivores are called carnivores
Tertiary Consumers
Animals that eat secondary consumers
Top Consumer
Animals at the top of the food chain

7. Suggestions:
Have this slide in editable view so that students can arrange the animals with either a mouse or on an interactive whiteboard.
Print out this slide and have students rearrange them.
Talk with the others in your group about how you would arrange these plants and animals into a food chain.

8. But food chains are actually much more complicated than this
Can you explain this one?

9. A Food Web Producer Top producer Tertiary producer Tertiary producer
Secondary producer
Secondary producer
Secondary producer
This slide illustrates a more complicated food web and labels each level of the web. Suggestions for discussion might be around what role the snail and cricket play in this web and the consequences of their removal.
Secondary producer
Primary Producer
Primary Producer
Producer

10. Images on Slides 3,4 and 5 - Photographer-Troy Bartlett
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Subject to disclaimers.
All other images sourced from:
© State of Victoria 2006 
Anne Baird, Deirdre McKenzie and Tanya Chalmers attended an Intel Teach Program Essentials Course and provided the idea for this portfolio.
Copyright is owned by the Crown in right of the State of Victoria. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for study or training purposes, subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgment of the source and no commercial usage or sale. Reproduction for the purposes other than those indicated above requires the written permission of the Department of Education and Training. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and copyright should be addressed to the Liability Management Manager, Department of Education and Training, 2 Treasury Place, Melbourne, VIC, 3002
The State of Victoria accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any part of this material and bears no responsibility for any modifications made.