Energy in a Food Chain

Lab Brief #4

🎯 Your mission

Understand the idea. Then look for it everywhere.

⚡ The twist

Nature loves to surprise the careful watcher.

What you'll learn

A food chain shows how energy passes from one organism to another. Producers like plants capture energy from the sun, herbivores eat the plants, and carnivores eat the herbivores.

Key words

producer
A living thing, like a plant, that makes its own food.
food web
How plants and animals are linked by what they eat.
organism
Any living thing, such as a plant, animal, or tiny microbe.

Make a hypothesis first

Before you start: write down what you think will happen, and why.

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Create a detailed food web for a local ecosystem. Include at least 8 organisms and use arrows to show energy flow from producers to top predators.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Observe what happens and describe it in detail.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Record your observations in your science journal with measurements and descriptions.

Question 1 of 3

What is the main source of energy for most food chains?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

Which organism is a producer in a food chain?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What happens to energy as it moves up a food chain?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🔬 The more you look, the more nature shows you.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: The Role of Decomposers All lessons

🎯

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This shows up in your everyday life more than you'd think.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Try one experiment in real life this week — even a tiny one.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the most surprising thing you learned today?”

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