Lesson 2 — Producers, Consumers and Food Chains

Biological sciences. Students learn that all energy in a food chain begins with the Sun, that producers (plants) make their own food, and that consumers eat other living things to get energy. They build a food chain as a paper chain using living things from a local Australian ecosystem (for example grass \u2192 rock wallaby \u2192 wedge-tailed eagle), and learn the key convention that the arrow points towards the living thing doing the eating (energy flows in the arrow's direction). Addresses the common misconception that a food chain shows 'what can kill what' rather than the flow of food and energy. Includes a slide deck with an animated food chain that shows energy passing from the Sun along the chain, and the Building Food Chains worksheet.