The Sun's Energy Through the Food Chain- Free Lesson

When you eat fresh produce and meat you're a consumer of energy from the sun.  Use this outdoors activity to demonstrate to students how energy is lost through the food chain.

The students will demonstrate how energy is lost as it moves through the food chain.

Students may get wet, so it is best to perform this activity outside.
A bucket with drilled holes in the bottom
2 additional containers to hold Water

Vocabulary:
Producer- plants that make their own food from sunlight energy
Consumer- animals within the food chain
Primary Consumer- plant eating animal
Secondary Consumer- an animal that eats a primary consumer

Use the following activity to show how sunlight energy is lost as it makes its way through a food chain:

Set up a container of water at the beginning of the line, and have an empty bin at the end of the line. The container filled with water represents Sunlight Energy. The empty container will represent the sunlight energy by the time it diminishes through the food chain.

Have a few students stand in a line forming a food chain, each student representing a different trophic level. Have the first student (the producer) fill the bucket up with water. This student will then pass the bucket of water to the next student, (primary consumer). The primary consumer will then pass the bucket to the next student (secondary consumer). The last student in the chain then empties the bucket of water into the empty container. Students should observe that there is a considerably less amount of water in the new container than they started with. Repeat this activity several times so that each student has had a chance to participate. You can also rotate the students’ positions in the chain so that they can experience the activity as different roles.

Discuss with students that as each consumer had the bucket of “energy”, some energy was lost as it was used up by body stored as energy so there was less energy to pass on to the next consumer within the food chain.

Ask students where they get their energy to do things, such as playing outside, riding a bike or even reading a book. We get the energy we need from eating healthy foods.
It is important to explain that all energy comes from the sun. The food chain begins with plants or producers who make their own food from the sun’s energy (sunlight). The energy that each consumer receives it stores in its body for energy. There is less energy for the next consumer to use and so forth.

Create with your students an example of a food chain, beginning with the sun as the beginning of the chain.

Review with students how they get energy.  Where does all energy come from?  Review the roles of producers and consumers within the food chain.  Relate to how the sun provides energy to plants and how we get the energy from the sun from some of the plants we eat, etc.