Science · Year 6

Active learning ideas

Food Webs and Energy Transfer

Active learning builds accurate mental models of food webs by letting students physically manipulate energy flows and trophic roles. Hands-on tasks turn abstract energy loss percentages into visible patterns, making the 10 percent transfer rule memorable.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9S6U01

• 30–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Concept Mapping
• 45 min · Small Groups

Card Sort: Build a Reef Food Web

Provide cards with Australian reef organisms, energy values, and links. In small groups, students sort into trophic levels, calculate energy at each step, and draw connections. Discuss adjustments after teacher feedback.

Analyze how the removal of a top predator can affect all trophic levels in a food web.

Facilitation Tip

During Card Sort, circulate to prompt students to justify each organism’s placement using evidence from cards.

What to look for

Provide students with a list of 10-15 organisms from a specific Australian ecosystem (e.g., Kakadu National Park). Ask them to draw arrows between the organisms to represent energy flow and label each organism with its trophic level (producer, primary consumer, etc.).

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 02

• Concept Mapping
• 30 min · Pairs

Domino Effect: Predator Removal Simulation

Use dominoes or blocks labelled as trophic levels in a bush ecosystem. Students knock over a top predator block and observe chain reactions. Groups record predicted versus actual impacts on lower levels.

Construct a detailed food web for a specific Australian ecosystem.

Facilitation Tip

In Domino Effect, allow students to test removal scenarios multiple times to observe cascading effects.

What to look for

Pose the following scenario: 'Imagine a disease significantly reduces the population of kangaroos in a eucalypt woodland. In small groups, discuss and predict: What might happen to the grass? What might happen to the predators that eat kangaroos? How might this affect the decomposers?' Have groups share their predictions.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 03

• Concept Mapping
• 35 min · Pairs

Energy Pyramid Construction

Students layer foam or paper cutouts for trophic levels, adding decreasing energy amounts based on 10% rule. Pairs label producers to apex predators using local species, then present pyramids.

Explain the concept of energy loss at each level of a food chain.

Facilitation Tip

For Energy Pyramid Construction, have students label each level with both energy percentages and organism examples from their chosen ecosystem.

What to look for

On a slip of paper, ask students to write: 1. One example of an organism that is a secondary consumer in an Australian food web. 2. One reason why energy is lost as it moves up a food chain. 3. The name of one Australian ecosystem they have studied.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 04

• Concept Mapping
• 40 min · Whole Class

Decomposer Role-Play

Assign roles as producers, consumers, and decomposers in a forest web. Whole class acts out energy flow and decay processes, with observers noting losses. Debrief on cycling.

Analyze how the removal of a top predator can affect all trophic levels in a food web.

Facilitation Tip

During Decomposer Role-Play, provide props like gloves or magnifying lenses to emphasize the physical act of breaking down matter.

What to look for

Provide students with a list of 10-15 organisms from a specific Australian ecosystem (e.g., Kakadu National Park). Ask them to draw arrows between the organisms to represent energy flow and label each organism with its trophic level (producer, primary consumer, etc.).

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teach this topic by starting with concrete models before abstract diagrams. Avoid premature use of terms like ‘trophic level’ until students experience energy flow through manipulatives; research shows this sequence reduces confusion. Use local examples to anchor understanding, but rotate them to prevent cultural disconnection. Emphasize energy dissipation as a unifying concept rather than isolated facts about organisms.

Students will correctly assemble energy pathways, quantify losses at each level, and explain why food chains shorten in complex webs. They will also articulate the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in Australian ecosystems.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Card Sort: Build a Reef Food Web, watch for students arranging organisms in single-file chains without branches.

  Circulate and ask, ‘Can this organism be eaten by more than one type of consumer? Where else does this energy go?’ to guide students to redraw overlapping pathways.

• During Energy Pyramid Construction, watch for students believing energy is recycled within the ecosystem.

  Point to the pyramid’s base and ask, ‘Where does the energy come from initially?’ to redirect focus to the sun and the one-way flow of energy loss.

• During Domino Effect: Predator Removal Simulation, watch for students assuming only predators hunt actively.

  Prompt students to sort organism cards into ‘hunts for food’ and ‘eats plants’ columns during the simulation to clarify herbivore and omnivore roles.

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Methods used in this brief

• Concept Mapping