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By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Define and explain what a food chain is
- Identify the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers
- Create and analyze simple food chains
- Explain how energy flows through a food chain

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Students can:
✓ Draw a food chain with at least 4 organisms
✓ Correctly label producers and consumers
✓ Explain energy transfer using arrows
✓ Give real-world examples of food chains

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Essential Question: What would happen if one species disappeared from a food chain?

Watch this short video to spark discussion about the importance of each organism in a food chain.

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Teacher presents key concepts:
- Definition of food chain
- Roles: producers, consumers (primary, secondary, tertiary)
- Energy flow direction
- Arrow symbols and their meaning

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Using Padlet's collaboration features, students work in pairs to:
1. Create a food chain using local organisms
2. Share their chain with the class
3. Comment on two other teams' food chains
4. Identify potential disruptions to their chain

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Food Chain Game - Science - Sheppard Software Educational Games for kids

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Food Chain Game - Food chains come to life: when a chain is correctly put together, it turns into an animated working chain!

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In small groups, students:
1. Receive ecosystem cards
2. Arrange organisms into correct food chain order
3. Explain their reasoning
4. Present their chain to neighboring group

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For advanced students:
- Research and create a marine ecosystem food chain
- Include at least 5 organisms
- Explain adaptations that help each organism in its role

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Image

Photograph by Adam Suto

It's a Fish-Eat-Fish World

Some 300,000 marine species are known to science-about 15 percent of all the species identified on the planet. But the sea is so vast that a million or more as yet unknown species may live in its waters. Most of these aquatic species are tied together through the food web.

Level One: Photoautotrophs

The foundation of the sea's food chain is largely invisible. Countless billions of one-celled organisms, called phytoplankton, saturate sunlit upper-ocean waters worldwide. These tiny plants and bacteria capture the sun's energy and, through photosynthesis, convert nutrients and carbon dioxide into organic compounds. On the coast, seaweed and seagrasses do the same thing.

Together, these humble plants play a large role: They are the primary producers of the organic carbon that all animals in the ocean food web need to survive. They also produce more than half of the oxygen that we breathe on Earth.

Level Two: Herbivores

The next level of the marine food chain is made up of animals that feast on the sea's abundant plant life. On the ocean's surface waters, microscopic animals-zooplankton, which include jellyfish and the larval stages of some fish, barnacles, and mollusks-drift across the sea, grazing opportunistically. Larger herbivores include surgeonfish, parrotfish, green turtles, and manatees.

Despite their differences in size, herbivores share a voracious appetite for ocean vegetation. Many of them also share the same fate-which is to become food for the carnivorous animals of the food chain's top two levels.

Level Three: Carnivores

The zooplankton of level two sustain a large and diverse group of small carnivores, such as sardines, herring, and menhaden. This level of the food chain also includes larger animals, such as octopuses (which feed on crabs and lobsters) and many fish (which feed on small invertebrates that live near shore). Though these animals are very successful hunters, they often fall prey to a simple fact of ocean life: Big fish eat smaller fish.

Level Four: Top Predators

The large predators that sit atop the marine food chain are a diverse group that includes finned (sharks, tuna, dolphins), feathered (pelicans, penguins), and flippered (seals, walruses) animals. These apex predators tend to be large, fast, and very good at catching prey. They are also long-lived and usually reproduce slowly.

But the marine food chain's top predators are common prey for the most deadly hunters of all-humans. When top predator species are depleted, their numbers are often slow to rebound, and their loss can send shock waves through the entire food web.

Alternative Food Chains

The primary marine food web, which is based on plant productivity, includes many of the sea's species-but not all of them. There are other deep-ocean ecosystems that are entirely independent of the sunlight energy that kick-starts the main marine ecosystem. At their roots, these unique ecosystems are fueled by chemical energy, which enters the ocean from sources like seafloor hydrothermal vents.

Director

Author

National Geographic Society

Production Managers

Program Specialists

Last Updated

October 19, 2023

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The marine ecosystem is made up of a complicated series interconnected energy producers-like plants and photoplankton-and consumers-from plant-eaters to meat-eaters, both great and small.

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Support Activity: Visual Food Chain Builder

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Support Activity: Visual Food Chain Builder

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For students needing additional support:
- Use picture cards to build simple food chains
- Work with a partner to identify producers and consumers
- Draw arrows to show energy flow

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Throughout the lesson:
- Monitor student discussions
- Check food chain diagrams for accuracy
- Ask probing questions about energy flow
- Observe peer feedback during Padlet sharing

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Students complete a 5-minute quiz on Padlet:
1. Identify producer in given food chain
2. Draw arrows showing energy flow
3. Explain what happens if one species is removed
4. Match organisms to their roles

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Create a food chain diorama showing:
- At least 4 organisms
- Correct energy flow
- Labels for each organism's role
- Brief explanation of relationships

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Class discusses:
- Most surprising thing learned
- Real-world importance of food chains
- Potential threats to food chains
- Ways to protect ecosystems

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Students post answers to:
1. Name one producer and its consumer
2. Why are food chains important?
3. One question you still have

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1. Observe your backyard or local park
2. Identify a simple food chain
3. Draw and label it
4. Explain how energy flows through your chain

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Complete these interactive activities:
- Food chain builder game
- Energy flow simulation
- Producer/consumer sorting activity