Science Lesson Kit · Teacher Resource
Food Webs: Matter & Energy in Ecosystems — 5E Lesson Plan
Life Science · 55 minutes
Grade 5
5E lesson flow
01
Engage
6 min
Teacher Does
Show a hawk and ask students to trace the energy in its food backward as far as possible.
Students Do
Propose a pathway and justify each link.
Ask
- Where did the rabbit get its food?
- Where did the plant get the energy used to make food?
Look For
Students trace the pathway through a producer and back to sunlight.
02
Explore
17 min
Teacher Does
Give groups organism and environment cards plus one arrow rule: food → eater. Ask them to build several connected feeding pathways.
Students Do
Build, test, and revise a food-web model with producers, consumers, and decomposers.
Ask
- Which organisms have more than one connection?
- Where should dead material and decomposers connect?
Look For
A network rather than isolated chains, with a consistent arrow convention.
03
Explain
10 min
Teacher Does
Formalize producer, consumer, decomposer, food web, matter, energy, and ecosystem. Contrast matter cycling with energy transfer.
Students Do
Trace one energy pathway and one matter pathway on the same model using different explanations.
Ask
- What moves along a feeding arrow?
- What happens to matter after an organism dies?
- Does energy cycle back to the Sun?
Look For
Energy traced to the Sun; matter moving among organisms, decomposers, and environment; no energy-cycle misconception.
04
Elaborate
14 min
Teacher Does
Give the class a simple population-change scenario and a small data card.
Students Do
Use direct model connections to make and revise predictions.
Ask
- Which arrow is your evidence?
- What can the model support, and what can it not guarantee?
Look For
Predictions tied to specific connections and appropriately cautious language.
05
Evaluate
8 min
Teacher Does
Ask students to build one short energy path, one matter path, and one evidence-based prediction.
Students Do
Draw, label, and explain individually.
Ask
- Where did the food energy begin?
- Where can matter go after death?
- Which connection supports your prediction?
Look For
Correct arrow direction, matter/energy distinction, and model-based evidence.
Student goal
I can use a food-web model to explain how matter cycles and how food energy moves through an ecosystem.
Learning objectives
- I can use a food-web model to trace feeding relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers.
- I can explain that energy in animals' food can be traced back to the Sun through producers.
- I can use a model to explain how matter moves among organisms, decomposers, and the environment.
Materials
- Sun card
- Organism cards: plants, herbivores, predators, decomposers
- Environment card
- Arrow cards or yarn
- Large paper or whiteboard space
- Student recording sheet
- Pencils
Before class
- Prepare one organism-card set per group.
- State one arrow convention before students build: food/source organism → eater.
- Include decomposers and an environment card so the model is not only predator–prey.
- Prepare one simple population-change scenario such as fewer rabbits.
- Keep matter cycling separate from energy transfer.
- Open Teach This Lesson and Practice before class.
Prior knowledge
- Plants need light, water, and air to grow.
- Animals get food by eating plants or other animals.
- A model represents selected parts and relationships in a system.
Vocabulary
- producer
- An organism, such as a plant, that makes its own food using light energy.
- consumer
- An organism that gets food by eating other organisms.
- decomposer
- An organism that breaks down dead material and returns matter to the environment.
- food web
- A model that shows many connected feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
- matter
- The material that makes up living and nonliving things.
- energy
- What is transferred through feeding relationships and can be traced back to sunlight in this ecosystem model.
- ecosystem
- Living and nonliving parts of an area interacting together.
Differentiation
- Use color-coded producer, consumer, decomposer, and environment cards.
- Provide the frame: “The arrow from ___ to ___ shows ___.”
- Let students physically trace yarn before drawing arrows.
- For extension, add a second food source and ask how that changes the strength of a population prediction.
Assessment
- Check role classification.
- Check feeding-arrow direction.
- Check that food energy is traced back to the Sun.
- Check that matter cycles but energy is not shown cycling back to the Sun.
- Check that population predictions cite a specific connection.
Exit ticket
Draw Sun → producer → consumer, then add one decomposer/matter connection and explain the difference between the two pathways.
Extension
Revise the web after adding or removing one feeding connection. Explain how the new model changes one prediction.