Lesson Plan

Grade Level / Subject: Middle school / Energy & Food Chains

Developed By: Lianna Gelwicks
Standards Addressed: 6.1a: Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, usually from
the Sun, through producers to consumers and then to decomposers. This process may be
visualized with food chains of energy pyramids. 6.1b: Foods webs identify feeding relationships
among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
Resources Used: writing utensils (crayons, markers, ect.), construction paper, poster board, glue,
scissors, index cards, sources from web or library, computer, printer
Length of Lesson: 1-2 Days with Periods of 45-50 minutes.

Planning What Students Will:

Know: ●producers ●consumers ●decomposers ●food chain / energy pyramid ●energy
Understand:
 Big Ideas: Energy is always flowing though ecosystems because the three levels of producers
and consumers are always creating food or feeding.
 Essential Questions: How is energy transferred and transformed as it flows through the food
chain? How do humans impact an ecosystem’s food chain?
Do: ●construct a food chain illustrating energy flow and feeding relationships in an ecosystem
●describe how energy is lost in a food chain
●describe the path that energy takes when flowing through an ecosystem making sure to
focus on feeding relationships

Planning Pre-Assessment:
●short quiz with true/false questions on the basic information; question about which
ecosystem they are personally interested in
●groups for lesson will be made based off of the results of this pre-assessment
●will help provide knowledge on which ecosystems students are interested in so I can
tailor some source options to these preferences

Planning the Learning Experience:

Introduction: ●Food chain game; place index cards with organisms from a food chain under
student’s desk chairs, make them line up in order in front of the room without talking to one
another. (If there is not enough organisms for every student, students left over can be the judges
of their classmates food chain)
OR
●food chain interactive game (https://www.brainpop.com/games/foodchaingame/)
(This can also be used as an activity for groups who finish planned and extended activities earlier
than other groups)

Body: Day 1. After the hook activity, students will be broken into groups based off of readiness
levels determined by their pre-assessment scores. Groups should be no larger than 4 students to
ensure that every child is being involved in the project. Each group will receive different primary
or secondary sources (roughly according to reading ability level) about food chains in differing
ecosystems (skill building that will later become standards they need to achieve according to
High School Living Science Common Core). Each group will pick one of the sources to use for
information as they build a model food chain of out of craft supplies. The food chain should be a
visual representation of the food chain described in the source they picked as a group. Groups
will plan their food chain and get it approved before moving on to the constructing stage. Groups
will then begin creating their food chain. Request that the essays be worked on and close to
finished for homework.
Day 2. Allow groups to finish building their model food chains. Once the chain is built, the
individuals at each group will separately work on their short essay describing the food chain,
meeting the standards in the KUD. Groups who are finished the building stage should be
encouraged to ask group members for help during the writing process if they were struggling
with anything the previous night. If the high level groups are finishing far ahead of schedule,
encourage them to think about or add more connections to their created food chains and discuss
with their group members. This will help them understand the real world complexity of
ecosystem feeding that other groups may not be ready to grasp during this exercise. They may
also begin to think about the impact humans have on the food chain they created.
Closure: have groups present their created food chains and all of the information they have
gathered (as many groups as time permits).
Assessment / Culminating Performance:
 Description: The student’s final project will become the final assessment. They will
receive a single grade combining the food chain visual with the short essay. This grade
will be based off of a rubric. (The closure presentation will not receive a grade or be
averaged into any individual’s final grades.)