5. Food Chains - Assessments

Assessment

1. Complete the food chain activity started in class.
2. Pick an ingredient from your lunch today and construct a food chain. Make sure to start with the sun and include yourself. Identify the role of each organism (producer, herbivore, omnivore, etc.).

Going Further

1. Discuss food chains that do not use the sun as its energy source. NOAA has created a website full of lesson plans for grades 5-12 all about life at hydrothermal vents.
2. Put food chains together into food webs. See Food Web lesson.
3. Look for signs of food chains outdoors. For instance, look for animal scat, insect marks on leaves, and animals foraging. Owl pellet dissections are a fabulous way to bring this back into the classroom. Kidwings provides a great online resource for owl pellet dissections.
4. Bring a rotten log back to the classroom to explore the food chains and mini-ecosystems within. See the Rotten Log Lab Assessment. I used this as an end of the unit assessment tool – which both I and the students enjoyed.