Food Webs & Interdependence

CONCEPTUAL

Science›Ecosystems & Habitats|Ages 11—12|ID: mt_URTJbS3hhs

Construct and interpret food webs showing the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, explaining how a change in one population affects others

Mastery Evidence

Draws a food web from given data with arrows showing energy flow direction
Predicts how the population of one species would change if another species increased or decreased
Distinguishes a food web from a food chain and explains why webs are more realistic
Identifies producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and apex predators

Assessment Prompt

“If [child] was shown a diagram with lots of animals connected by arrows, could they explain what it means — tracing what eats what — and predict what would happen if one animal disappeared from the web?”

Curriculum Standards2 alignments

MS-LS2-1Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Middle Schoolcodes only

Standard code — full text not included in this dataset.

KS3.Sci.Bio.Ecosystem.1The national curriculum in England

Interdependence in an ecosystem

the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, including food webs and insect pollinated crops

Science · KS3

Prerequisites3

Ecology Vocabulary
hardAges 8—10
Food Chains & Energy Transfer
hardAges 8—9
Reading Food Web Diagrams
hardAges 8—9

Show full prerequisite tree

Ecology Vocabulary hard
Constructing food webs and understanding interdependence requires food web, producer, decomposer vocabulary
Food Chains & Energy Transfer hard
KS3 food webs and ecosystem interdependence extends KS2 introduction to food chains with producers, predators and prey
- Rainforest Food Webs soft
  Rainforest food webs enrich curriculum food chains topic (exploratory age 7 -> curriculum age 8)
  - Rainforest Plants hard
    Must know rainforest plants (producers) before constructing food webs
    - Rainforest Layers hard
      Plants taught in context of layers (epiphytes in canopy, lianas climbing trunks)
      - What Is a Rainforest? hard
        Must know what a rainforest is before learning its four layers
  - Rainforest Animals hard
    Must know rainforest animals before constructing food chains with them
    - Rainforest Layers hard
      Animals are taught in context of which layer they inhabit
      - What Is a Rainforest? hard
        Must know what a rainforest is before learning its four layers
- Animal Nutrition soft
  Nutrition knowledge supports understanding why animals occupy different trophic levels
  - Herbivores, Carnivores & Omnivores soft
    Carnivore/herbivore/omnivore classification supports understanding nutrition differences
    - Naming Common Animals hard
      Must identify animal groups before classifying by diet
  - What Living Things Need hard
    Must know basic survival needs before learning about nutrition types and food groups
    - Common Plants & Trees soft
      Knowing plants helps understand what they need
    - Living Things Vocabulary soft
      Describing what plants and animals need to survive uses life processes vocabulary: nutrition, growth, sensitivity
    - Naming Common Animals soft
      Knowing animals helps understand what they need
- Simple Food Chains hard
  Must understand simple food chains before constructing complex ones with producer/predator/prey terminology
  - Herbivores, Carnivores & Omnivores hard
    Must know carnivore/herbivore/omnivore to understand food chains
    - Naming Common Animals hard
      Must identify animal groups before classifying by diet
  - Habitats & Basic Needs hard
    Must know about habitats and interdependence before learning food chains
    - Where Are the Poles? soft
      Polar regions enrich the curriculum habitats topic (exploratory age 5 -> curriculum age 6)
    - Habitat Vocabulary hard
      Describing how habitats provide for basic needs requires habitat, environment, conditions, shelter vocabulary
    - What Is a Rainforest? soft
      Rainforest habitat knowledge enriches the curriculum habitats topic (exploratory age 5 -> curriculum age 6)
    - What Living Things Need hard
      Must know basic needs of organisms before understanding how habitats provide for those needs
      - Common Plants & Trees soft
        Knowing plants helps understand what they need
      - Living Things Vocabulary soft
        Describing what plants and animals need to survive uses life processes vocabulary: nutrition, growth, sensitivity
      - Naming Common Animals soft
        Knowing animals helps understand what they need
    - What Ocean Animals Need soft
      Ocean animal needs parallels curriculum habitats/basic needs concept
      - What Is the Ocean? soft
        Ocean animal needs are contextualised by knowing what the ocean is
    - Animal Homes soft
      Animal homes concept is enriched by curriculum habitats topic
      - Animals Everywhere hard
        Animal homes builds on knowing animals live everywhere
    - Living, Dead & Never Alive hard
      Must distinguish living from non-living before understanding habitats that support living things
      - Common Plants & Trees soft
        Knowing plant names helps distinguish living from non-living
      - Living Things Vocabulary hard
        Comparing living, dead, and never-been-alive things requires the life processes vocabulary to give reasons
      - Naming Common Animals soft
        Knowing animal groups helps distinguish living from non-living
    - Minibeast Habitats soft
      Exploratory micro-habitats knowledge enriches curriculum habitats topic
      - Common minibeasts: naming and recognising hard
        Must recognise common minibeasts before exploring where each type lives
        
        What is a minibeast? hard
        Must understand what minibeasts are before learning to name specific ones
  - Ocean Food Chains soft
    Ocean food chain parallels curriculum simple food chain concept
    - What Ocean Animals Need soft
      Food chains explain how animals meet their need for food
      - What Is the Ocean? soft
        Ocean animal needs are contextualised by knowing what the ocean is
    - Ocean Animal Variety soft
      Food chains benefit from knowing the variety of animals that eat each other
  - Minibeasts in the food chain soft
    Garden minibeast food chains provide concrete examples for curriculum simple-food-chains
    - Common minibeasts: naming and recognising hard
      Must know common minibeasts before placing them in food chains
      - What is a minibeast? hard
        Must understand what minibeasts are before learning to name specific ones
  - Rainforest Animals soft
    Rainforest animals provide rich examples for simple food chains (exploratory age 5 -> curriculum age 6)
    - Rainforest Layers hard
      Animals are taught in context of which layer they inhabit
      - What Is a Rainforest? hard
        Must know what a rainforest is before learning its four layers
- Ecology Vocabulary hard
  Constructing and interpreting food chains requires producer, consumer, predator, prey vocabulary
- Ocean Food Webs soft
  Ocean food webs build on curriculum food chains with trophic levels
  - Classifying Ocean Animals soft
    Food webs benefit from knowing animal classification groups
    - Whales & Dolphins Are Mammals hard
      Classifying marine mammals vs fish builds on whale/dolphin are mammals concept
      - Ocean Animal Variety soft
        Mammals vs fish distinction benefits from knowing ocean animal variety
    - Ocean Animal Variety hard
      Classifying ocean animals builds on knowing the variety exists
  - Ocean Food Chains hard
    Food webs extend simple food chains to interconnected networks
    - What Ocean Animals Need soft
      Food chains explain how animals meet their need for food
      - What Is the Ocean? soft
        Ocean animal needs are contextualised by knowing what the ocean is
    - Ocean Animal Variety soft
      Food chains benefit from knowing the variety of animals that eat each other
Reading Food Web Diagrams hard
Constructing and interpreting food webs requires the food web diagram representation
- Reading and drawing circuit diagrams soft
  Reading food web arrows requires the same diagram-reading conventions as circuit diagrams — both are directed-graph notations

Unlocks6

The Carbon Cycle
softAges 12—13
Energy Loss Between Levels
hardAges 11—12
Species Distribution & Change
softAges 12—13
Pollination & Pollinator Decline
softAges 11—12
Biodiversity & Resilience
hardAges 12—14
Toxins Building Up in Food Chains
hardAges 12—13