STUDY GUIDE PART 2

T1 Study guide Part 2 T1 2024.docx

1.Food chains
a.) Build a Food Chain Game
Goal: Build several different food chains

Before starting the game, check out the information below describing what a food chain is
and how several food chains can make up a food web. Knowing a little bit about food chains
and food webs may be helpful to you when you play the game. After that, you'll be given
instructions on how to play the game.

What is a Food Chain?

All living things need food to survive. A food chain shows how each living thing gets food,
and how nutrients and energy passes on from creature to creature, or from environment to
creature. Below is a basic example of a food chain:

The Elements of a Food Chain

The Sun is usually the beginning of most food chains.

• Nearly all of the energy used by living things on earth to survive originally
came from the sun.
Producers, which are plants, produce their own food from sun, water, air (carbon dioxide),
and soil.
Consumers, which are usually animals, consume other plants and animals.
• An herbivore only eats plants.
• A carnivore only eats meat.
• An omnivore eats both plants and animals.
Decomposers, which include fungi, bacteria, and worms, eat decaying plants and animals,
and decompose them back into soil. The soil can then be used by plants to grow.
What is a Food Web?

Many food chains make up a food web. Below is an example of a food web. See how
many different food chains can make up a food web?

How to Play:
1. Click on the “Next” button below.
2. The food chain starts with a picture of something.
3. Click on the picture of the thing you think comes next in the food chain.
4. Click the “Next” button at the bottom of the page to see if you were right.
5. When your food chain is complete, you can move on to a new food chain.

Now that you've learned more about food chains and how to play, it's time to begin the
game. Good luck!
2.Food webs
a.) Ecosystem

Food Chain and Food Web

Every living plant and animal must have energy to survive. Plants rely on the soil, water,
and the sun for energy. Animals rely on plants as well as other animals for energy.

In an ecosystem, plants and animals all rely on each other to live. Scientists sometimes
describe this dependence using a food chain or a food web.

Food Chain

A food chain describes how different organisms eat each other, starting out with a plant and
ending with an animal. For example, you could write the food chain for a lion like this:

grass ---> zebra ---> lion

The lion eats the zebra, which eats the grass. Here is another example in picture form:

The grasshopper eats grass, the frog eats the grasshopper, the snake eats the frog, and
the eagle eats the snake.

Links of the Chain

There are names to help describe each link of the food chain. The names depend mostly
on what the organism eats and how it contributes to the energy of the ecosystem.

• Producers - Plants are producers. This is because they produce energy for the
ecosystem. They do this because they absorb energy from sunlight through
photosynthesis. They also need water and nutrients from the soil, but plants are the
only place where new energy is made.
• Consumers - Animals are consumers. This is because they don't produce energy,
they just use it up. Animals that eat plants are called primary consumers or
herbivores. Animals that eat other animals are called secondary consumers or
carnivores. If a carnivore eats another carnivore, it is called a tertiary consumer.
Some animals play both roles, eating both plants and animals. They are called
omnivores.
 • Decomposers - Decomposers eat decaying matter (like dead plants and animals).
They help put nutrients back into the soil for plants to eat. Examples of decomposers
are worms, bacteria, and fungi.

Lets go back to this example:

Grass ---> zebra ---> lion

• grass = producer
• zebra = primary consumer
• lion = secondary consumer

Energy is Lost

Like we said above, all the energy made in the food chain comes from the producers, or
plants, converting sunlight into energy with photosynthesis. The rest of the food chain just
uses energy. So as you move through the food chain there is less and less energy available.
For this reason, there are less and less organisms the further along the food chain you get.

In our example above, there is more grass than zebras, and more zebras than lions. The
zebras and lions use up energy doing stuff like running, hunting, and breathing.

Each Link is Important

Links higher up in the food chain rely on the lower links. Even though lions don't eat grass,
they wouldn't last long if there wasn't any grass because then the zebras wouldn't have
anything to eat.

Food Web

In any ecosystem there are many food chains and, generally, most plants and animals are
part of several chains. When you draw all the chains together you end up with a food
web.
Example of a food web
Trophic Levels

Sometimes scientists describe each level in a food web with a trophic level. Here are the
five trophic levels:
• Level 1: Plants (producers)
• Level 2: Animals that eat plants or herbivores (primary consumers)
• Level 3: Animals that eat herbivores (secondary consumers, carnivores)
• Level 4: Animals that eat carnivores (tertiary consumers, carnivores)
• Level 5: Animals at the top of the food chain are called apex predators.
Nothing eats these animals.

Activities
• Take a ten question quiz about this page.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

More ecosystem and biome subjects:

✓ Land Biomes
o Desert
o Grasslands
o Savanna
o Tundra
o Tropical Rainforest
o Temperate Forest
o Taiga Forest
✓ Aquatic Biomes
o Marine
o Freshwater
o Coral Reef
✓ Nutrient Cycles
o Food Chain and Food Web(Energy Cycle)
o Carbon Cycle
o Oxygen Cycle
 o Water Cycle
o Nitrogen Cycle

Back to the main Biomes and Ecosystems page.

Back to Kids Science Page

Back to Kids Study Page

b.)

C.)
3. Biomagnification
a.)

In this activity, students model bioaccumulation of toxins in marine animals. They participate
in a food web game where feeding decisions determine their survival.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
• explain bioaccumulation of toxins in a marine food web
• explain harmful algal blooms (HABs)
• explain what scientists are doing to help keep us safe from marine toxins.
 

Bioaccumulation in the sea

This interactive demonstrates bioaccumulation of marine toxins. It shows how toxins move
through a marine food web.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:

• introduction/background notes
• what you need
• what to do.

Nature of science
Scientific knowledge can make a difference to our lives. Understanding the food web and
bioaccumulation of toxins helps scientists work out how to help people (from getting sick)
through seafood monitoring. Scientists continue to explore harmful algalblooms (HABs),
including why toxins are produced and whether we can reduce the growth of HABs.
Related content
A poison is defined by its dose, explore how toxins enter the food web, and in particular the
marine food web.
Activity idea
In Investigating toxins and bioaccumulation in marine food webs students learn about
feeding connections (food webs and food chains) within a marine ecosystemand then
observe how toxins bioaccumulate as they are passed through these connections.
B.)

4.Circulatory System

a.)
b.)
C.) https://youtu.be/K3uw9nKQBfw?feature=shared
I have seen it

5.Respiratory system
a.)