← Home

Polar Food Chains

CONCEPTUAL
Science›Polar Regions|Ages 7—9|ID: mt_7nduoLvoB1

Understand polar food chains — in the Antarctic, phytoplankton are eaten by krill, krill are eaten by fish and penguins, and penguins are eaten by leopard seals and orcas; in the Arctic, algae under ice feeds zooplankton, which feeds fish, which feeds seals, which feeds polar bears — and that tiny organisms like krill and plankton are the foundation of all polar life

Mastery Evidence

  • Construct an Antarctic food chain: phytoplankton → krill → penguin → leopard seal or orca
  • Construct an Arctic food chain: algae → zooplankton → fish → seal → polar bear
  • Explain why krill and plankton are critical — without them, the entire food chain collapses

Assessment Prompt

“Can [child] explain a polar food chain — starting from tiny plankton, through krill and fish, up to seals and polar bears or orcas — and explain why the tiny creatures at the bottom are so important?”

Prerequisites2

Show full prerequisite tree
  • Polar Animals hard

    Must know polar animals before placing them in food chains

    • Arctic vs Antarctic hard

      Must know Arctic vs Antarctic before learning which animals live where

    • Penguins soft

      Penguins and polar bears are the anchor species; other animals build on these

      • Arctic vs Antarctic hard

        Must know penguins live in Antarctic (not Arctic) from the comparison topic

    • Polar Bears soft

      Polar bears are the anchor species; other animals build on these

      • Arctic vs Antarctic hard

        Must know polar bears live in Arctic (not Antarctic) from the comparison topic

  • Penguins soft

    Penguins are central to Antarctic food chain examples

    • Arctic vs Antarctic hard

      Must know penguins live in Antarctic (not Arctic) from the comparison topic

Unlocks2