Subject: Science Grade: 5 Duration: 120 minutes Term: 2

Unit of Work (Strand): How Do Plants and Animals Interact Topic: Feeding Relationships (Topic
Concretization)

Standard:

Demonstrate the ability to employ reasoning to understand the transfer of energy through food chains and
webs and the relationship this creates between plants and animals, by using prior knowledge on energy
transfer, information and vocabulary of food webs and food chains.

Standards for Scientific Practices:

 1. Asking Questions and Defining Problems.

Prerequisite knowledge/skills:
Check that students are able to (in relation
to the specific subtopic):
- Diverse knowledge on several organisms;
- Define Producers, Consumers, Decomposers, Predator, Prey;
- Define an eco-system;
- Define, identify and model Food Chains and Food Webs.
Specific Objectives:
Students should be able to:
- Gain an understanding of some life processes in plants and animals, how lifestyle choices impact health
and well-being in humans.
- Recognize the variety of living things, their interdependence and their inter-relationship with the
environment.
- Gain an understanding of and apply the engineering design process
- Gain an understanding of and apply aspects of the scientific method.
- Begin to appreciate the influence and limitations of science
- Demonstrate a positive attitude towards the use of scientific language
- Demonstrate positive interpersonal skills in order to foster good working relationships.

Teaching/Learning Resources:
- Internet (if necessary), Computer (if necessary), food chain/web models

https://moey.gov.jm/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Grade-5-Exploratory-Core.pdf (pg. 289)

Key Vocabulary:
- Food chains, Food Webs, Producers, Consumers, Decomposers, Interdependence, Carnivores, Omnivores,
Herbivores.
Learning Outcome(s):

- Correctly sequence plants and animals in food chains using appropriate vocabulary
- Cite evidence of the significance of light energy to plants
- Explain the feeding relationships among plants and animals
- Defending the need for the preservation and protection of plants and animals.

Content Outline:

In ecology, a food chain is a series of organisms that eat one another so that energy and
nutrients flow from one to the next. For example, if you had a hamburger for lunch, you
might be part of a food chain that looks like this:

Grass → Cow → Human.

But what if you had lettuce on your hamburger? In that case, you're also part of a food
chain that looks like this:

Lettuce → Human.

As this example illustrates, we can't always fully describe what an organism — such as a
human—eats with one linear pathway. For situations like the one above, we may want to
use a food web that consists of many intersecting food chains and represents the different
things an organism can eat and be eaten by.

Energy is transferred between trophic levels when one organism eats another and gets the
energy-rich molecules from its prey's body. However, these transfers are inefficient, and
this inefficiency limits the length of food chains.

When energy enters a trophic level, some of it is stored as biomass, as part of organisms'
bodies. This is the energy that's available to the next trophic level since only energy stored as
biomass can get eaten. As a rule of thumb, only about 10% of the energy that's stored as
biomass in one trophic level—per unit time—ends up stored as biomass in the next trophic
level—per the same unit time. This 10% rule of energy transfer is a good thing to commit to
memory.
TEACHING/LEARNING ACTIVITY:

Engage:

Students will play a game called “Top Dog.” (See the video for an example, although I
have changed the title and a few levels)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/52072939413758646/

Have students collectively come up with and agree on body movements for the sun,
grass, rabbit, snake, and bacteria. All students will start out as the sun. When the
teacher says, “Go,” they will display their sign and are to find another person with the
same sign.

They will play one round of rock, paper, scissors. The winner will advance to the next
level, the grass, and will then find another person who is grass and repeat. The loser
will remain as the current sign and find another person to battle.

Play for 5-10 minutes. The goal is to reach the last level (bacteria) by the end of the
game and be crowned “Top Dog!”. Have the students ask “WHY” questions about the
activity. Ultimately, you want to get the students to ask a question like “Why did the
order go from sun to grass to rabbit to snake to bacteria?”

Explore:

Students in the class will be split into small groups and provide with paper –get pupils
to draw down the middle and label at the top of one column Predator and the other
Prey. Get pupils to describe how the predators are adapted for finding, catching and
killing their prey. Ideas should include predators may have eyes forward, acute vision
and sense of smell, sharp claws/talons/beaks for piercing and tearing, may ambush or
hunt by stealth.
Next get pupils to describe how the prey species are adapted for detecting and
avoiding predators. Ideas should include prey may have eyes at the side, acute
hearing and sense of smell, be easily startled, be nocturnal, camouflaged.
Through class discussion, list the most obvious features and get pupils to put these
into a table in their books. This follows a class discussion on meadowland or
woodland habitats and challenge them to make as many food chains as they can. Ask
them to identify producers, consumers, herbivores and carnivores.
Explain:

Students will then receive an explanation on the direction of the arrows in the food
chain and relate to energy transfer, with the Sun as the ultimate source of energy.
Asking pupils to write a sentence about each food chain, using links of cause and
examples.
Ask pupils to think of examples of animals that occur in more than one food chain
and to explain what this shows about their food sources. Show pupils a food web and
explain that it is a more accurate representation of feeding relationships. Help pupils
use the food chains they have generated to construct a food web for display. Establish
with pupils that food webs, food chains and terms, e.g. predator and prey are ways of
describing feeding relationships

Elaborate:

Using the new terminology and knowledge attained earlier in the lesson students will
be asked to think of examples of animals that occur in more than one food chain and
to explain what this shows about their food sources. Show pupils a food web and
explain that it is a more accurate representation of feeding relationships. Help pupils
use the food chains they have generated to construct a food web for display. Establish
with pupils that food webs, food chains and terms, e.g. predator and prey are ways of
describing feeding relationships

Evaluate:

A modified version of the questions listed below will be presented to the students:
Teacher evaluation:

Strengths:

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Weaknesses:

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Actions To be Taken:

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