K20 Alt [BIOLOGY I] Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

ENERGY FLOW THROUGH ECOSYSTEMS

PASS
How does energy flow through ecosystems? Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction from
photosynthetic organisms to herbivores to carnivores to decomposers. Through this activity students
will learn terms associated with ecosystems. Students will correlate the volume of water in a container
to the amount of energy available at different trophic levels of a food chain. This is a great activity to
conduct with students outdoors; however it can be done indoors.

Concept: Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction from photosynthetic organisms to
herbivores to carnivores and decomposers. The total energy found in organisms from one trophic level
in a food chain is available to organisms in the next trophic level as only a portion of energy consumed is
stored as organic matter; the rest is utilized in metabolic processes or transformed into heat.

Content Background Information Required: No background information required. Please watch the
demonstration video to get a better idea of how to conduct this lab with students, including tips for
setting up the lab.

Student Objectives:
Students will assess the dependence of all organisms on one another and the flow of energy
and matter within an ecosystem
Students will gain an understanding of the flow of energy in ecosystems
Students will learn components of a food chain and arrange them according to energy flow
Students will practice skills associated with measuring liquids
Students will compare the quantity of energy in the steps of an energy pyramid

Materials:
Containers for holding and collecting water (Could be buckets or trays)
Paper or Styrofoam cups
Graduated Cylinders or Measuring Cups

Lesson Preparation:
1. Review terms associated with ecosystems.
2. Review K20 Alt instructional video under the demonstration video section
3. Review websites on resources section of this lesson
Setting up the activity: This activity involves setting up containers in a line so students can
simulate a water bucket brigade. Students will be passing water from cup to cup down a line
until they reach the end where they will dump the remaining water in the last cup into a
container. Students will do this in a small group or with a partner for one minute. The goal is for
students to calculate the efficiency with which they transfer water from the first container to
the last container. There will be a loss of water that occurs in the transfer process because the
cups students will be using to transfer water will have holes in them. This lab can be a little
messy. It might be the perfect opportunity to take students outdoors to conduct this lab.
However, as you can see in the demonstration video it can be accomplished inside. The overall
goal of this activity is for students to make connections between the loss of water and the loss
of energy that occurs naturally in an ecosystem from trophic level to trophic level. Watching
the demonstration video will allow you to have a better idea of how to set this lab up and
how to conduct it with students.

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Lesson Procedures:

Introduction-Exploring The Concept

Begin by setting up the containers for the water transfer and explaining to students that they
will be transferring water in a bucket brigade down a line.
They will be given one minute to transfer as much water from the first container to the last
container. They must use the cups they are given to transfer the water. (Give each group of
students the 4 cups. Have them label the cups 1-4 and use a sharpened pencil to put the following
holes in the cups. Each of the cups will come to represent a trophic level in food chains in
ecosystems during a discussion that can be lead with students after they have completed the
activity.
o Cup 1 = 1 hole
o Cup 2 = 1 hole
o Cup 3 = 2 holes
o Cup 4 = 3 holes
Give one group 3 cups instead of 4. This group will be representing a food chain with three
trophic levels instead of 4. The data this group collects can be used in a discussion with the
entire class later. The class can analyze any differences in the data collected between the group
who had 3 cups and the groups who had four cups. The group with 3 cups should follow the
labeling and hole punches below:
o Cup 1 = 1 hole
o Cup 2 = 2 holes
o Cup 3 = 3 holes
Students must be able to calculate how much water they dipped out of the first container in
one minute and they must be able to calculate how much water they ended up with in the last
container after one minute. (Allow them to think about this and see if they can come up with a
way to accomplish these two tasks. The demonstration video shows that students used graduated
cylinders to measure how much water would fit in one full cup and then they kept count of the
number of times they dipped a cup full of water from the first container in one minute. They
multiplied the number of cups they dipped by the amount of water that fit in one cup to calculate
the total amount of water they dipped out of the first container. To determine how much water
they ended up with in the last container they carefully measured the water with a graduated
cylinder. If you do not have graduated cylinders you can use measuring cups.)
Students will conduct this activity a total of 3 times and complete student handout 1.
o To calculate the efficiency of water transfer:

Efficiency = Volume of water in end container (mL) / Volume taken from
beginning container (mL) x 100
Have a copy of the student handout available on the board so students can write the data they
collect on the board. Have students complete student handout 1 to include all of the classroom
data from the activity.

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BIOLOGY II] Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

The picture to the left may give you a

better idea of how this lab can be set up
and completed. This student is dipping
his cup #1 in the first container,
containe which is
full of water. He will then transfer the
water from cup #1 into cup #2 which is in
his left hand. The gray tray under his left
hand is being used to catch water coming
from the holes in cup #2.
#2 He will then
transfer the water in cup #2 to his
partner who is holding cup #3 and they
will continue the water transfer until they
reach the final container.

Student Handout 1 “Example”

Data Table:

Group Trial 1 Trial 1 Efficiency Trial 2 Trial 2 Efficiency Trial 3 Trial 3 Efficiency Average
Volume Volume of water Volume Volume of water Volume Volume of water Efficiency
taken in final transfer taken in final transfer taken in final transfer of water
from first container from first container from first container transfer
container container container

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Once students have completed the data table with information begin a discussion with
students in which they can begin to think about the comparison between the loss of water from
the activity and the loss of energy in ecosystems from trophic level to trophic level.

Explaining the Concept:

Ask students what they notice about the data they collected. They may discuss that there was a
considerable amount of water lost from the first container to the last. They may notice that the
efficiency for the group that had 3 cups may be higher than the groups who had four. We want
them to take away from the activity that water was lost from the first container to the last in
the process of transference. Students are practicing observations, interpretation, and
communications skills while they look at the data and try to give it order and make sense of it.
Once students have analyzed the data on the board you can begin to have students make the
connections between the activity they just completed and how energy is transferred in
ecosystems by asking students to label each of their cups the following:
o Cup 1 = Grass For the group with three cups they can label them:
o Cup 2= Field mouse
o Cup 3 = Snake Cup 1 = Grass Cup 2 = Field mouse Cup 3 = Snake
o Cup 4 = Hawk
Ask students what their cups now look like with these labels. What do their cups represent?
Students may say a food chain or a food web. You could ask them if they know the difference. If
they don’t, you could facilitate one of the extension ideas from the HQ documentation of this
lesson in the virtual classroom. If students mention ecosystem that’s great too.
Once students have made the connection that their cups represent a food chain or make some
reference to it, ask students to think about the activity they just did with the water and to look
at their newly labeled cups and think of the water as being energy transferred among the
components of their food chain.
Do you think there is any comparison between water lost in the activity
and energy lost in ecosystems or food chains?
We want students to realize that energy is lost to the environment
when organisms consume other organisms in an ecosystem.
When students are finished discussing energy loss and its comparison to the water lost in the
activity you can lead them through a discussion to answer the questions in student handout 2.

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Student Handout 2 Questions & Answers

1. An ecosystem is a functional unit consisting of all the living organisms (plants, animals, and
microbes) in a given area.

2. The transfer of food energy from plants to one or more animals in a linear sequence is
known as a food chain.

3. An organism that uses light energy or energy stored in chemical compounds to make
energy-rich compounds is known as an autotroph.

4. An organism that cannot make its own food and feeds on other organisms is called a
heterotroph.

5. Producers use sunlight to make food.

6. Herbivores obtain food from photosynthetic organisms.

7. Carnivores eats meat in the form of other animals.

8. Decomposers break down and release nutrients from dead organisms.

10. Trophic Levels = are the energy levels or steps in a food chain or food web.

9. How does energy flow through an ecosystem? Energy flows through ecosystems in one
direction from photosynthetic organisms to herbivores, carnivores, and decomposers. The
total energy found in organisms from one trophic level in a food chain is not available to
organisms in the next trophic level. It’s important that students make these connections
from the discussion and from the activity.
The diagram to the left is an example of an energy
pyramid which may help students visualize trophic
Hawk levels a little better. You can draw it on the board
and explain to them that approximately 10% of
Snake energy is passed on to the next trophic level. This
Field Mouse fact will be important for students in answering
EOI style questions in student handout 3.
Grass

11. Is the amount of energy in each trophic level the same in a food chain? Explain
Yes, we want students to restate that energy is lost from trophic level to trophic level in an
ecosystem which includes a food chain.

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Food Chain Activity:

The following activity can be used to reinforce the concept of a food chain and the terms
associated with it.

Give each group of students a different example of a food chain and ask them to
organize the organisms, define their role (producer, consumer [herbivore, omnivore,
carnivore] or decomposer) and describe the energy transfer across the system.
If students are unsure which organisms consume which organisms, have them do some
research on the internet to figure it out. Remind them that the category the organism
fits in is determined by what organism they consume.
Have students present their finding to the class in a presentation
Here is a great website that reviews terms associated with food chains and includes
animation
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/prof.danglais/animations/foodchain/chainreaction.swf

Food Chain #1 Food Chain #2 Food Chain #3

Grass Grass Tree

Rabbit Mice Owl

Coyote Owl Lizard

Beetle Skunk Moth

Grasshopper Boring Weevil

Fungi

During this activity ask students what they know about predator- prey relationships and
how it applies to any of the food chains they are trying to organize.
Predators expend energy in trying to capture their prey
The reward of gaining the prey is that the predator gains energy

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BIOLOGY II] Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

Student Handout 3 Questions & Answers

The following questions are Biology I EOI practice questions pertaining to the concepts of energy in
ecosystems and components of ecosystems.

B is the correct
answer.

C is the
correct
answer

B is the correct answer

and this is an example of
depth-of
of-knowledge
question of 1.

The correct answer

is B, because level 1
represents
producers and they
pass on about 10%
of their energy to
the next level.

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K20 Alt [BIOLOGY
BIOLOGY II] Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

The correct
answer is D and
this is an
example of a
depth-
depth of –
knowledge
question 2

The correct
answer is C, it’s
the only one
that has only
producers at the
very bottom
level and this is
an example of a
depth-
depth of –
knowledge
question 2

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Extensions or Applications for this lesson:

Modifications:
This lesson can be conducted indoors or outdoors and may be adapted by having students use five and
six cups to do the bucket brigade to see how that changes the data collected. With five and six cups
students can explore the concepts of primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers, where consumers eat
other consumers.

This lesson can be conducted with one group of two students if a full class will not be participating. The
most effective way to accomplish this activity with one group of students collecting data is by having
the group do the activity with 4 cups, then 3 cups then analyzing the data collected and organized from
that.

Highly Qualified Extension For Professional Development Points (See HQ Section of this lesson for
more information):

Extension activity:
Many topics can be introduced to students as extensions to this lesson. They can learn about the
nitrogen cycle, the carbon cycle, the water cycle, and photosynthesis, and make connections between
each of those topics and the information they gained about ecosystems in this lesson.
Assign one of the topics to students and have students explore the following processes in
groups of two or in teams.
 Students can research the processes in pairs and present their findings to the rest of
the class through a power point presentation or poster presentation.
 Students can research the processes in teams and develop a game or activity to
conduct with the class

Website resources for the cycles and photosynthesis are available under the resources section of this
lesson. Students should be able to make connections between their topic and its connection to living
organisms in ecosystems and discuss that in their presentation or game or activity they develop.

Nitrogen Cycle =The cycle of the element nitrogen through ecosystems. Organisms need nitrogen
in order to synthesize amino acids and protein. Nitrogen is taken up from the soil by plants in the
form of nitrate and converted to plant protein.
Carbon Cycle = All living organisms are made up of carbon-containing molecules: carbohydrates,
proteins and lipids. The carbon cycle encompasses all of the reactions that enable living organisms
to use carbon to build tissues and release energy.
Water Cycle = The cycle by which water evaporates from soils, vegetation, oceans and other
bodies of water; accumulates as water vapor in clouds; returns to the Earth, oceans and other
bodies of water as rain and snow; and runs off as river flow, through the soil or an aquifer.
Photosynthesis = The process by which green plants make carbohydrates such as sugar, using
water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight.

Once you have conducted the, “energy flow through ecosystems”, lesson, and go to the HQ section of
this lesson to submit answers to a few questions to gain professional development points towards
building a house in Biology Sciences. Additional professional development points can be gained by
developing and conducting the extension lesson idea discussed above.

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PASS Objectives: Biology I

Process and Inquiry Standards:

Observe and Measure
 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Interpret and Communicate
 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5
Inquiry
 6.1
Content Standards and Objectives:
The Interdependence of Organisms
 4.1, 4.2
Matter, Energy, and Organization in Living Systems
 5.1, 5.2

PASS Objectives: Middle School Science

Process and Inquiry Standards: 6th, 7th, & 8th grade science
Observe and Measure
 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Interpret and Communicate
 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5
Inquiry
 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4
Content Standards and Objectives: 6th grade science
Populations & Ecosystems
 4.1, 4.2

Alternative Credit for students who are not

enrolled in Biology I:

English credit suggestions:

 Through the extension activity

students could receive credit in
English for giving a speech through
a presentation
 Students could gain English credit
for writing an essay about the
impact of humans on living
organisms in ecosystems

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