Science · Grade 6

Active learning ideas

Food Webs and Energy Flow

Active learning makes abstract energy flow concepts tangible for Grade 6 students by letting them physically arrange organisms and trace energy paths. When students handle real organisms from their own ecosystem, they connect classroom science to the local environment they see every day.

• Ontario Curriculum Expectations
• MS-LS2-3

• 20–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Concept Mapping
• 30 min · Pairs

Card Sort: Local Food Web Builder

Provide cards with local Ontario organisms, arrows for energy flow, and labels for trophic levels. In pairs, students sort and connect cards into a food web on large paper, justifying placements with research notes. End with labeling producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Construct a food web for a local ecosystem, identifying producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Facilitation Tip

For the Card Sort, provide real Ontario organism cards and have students physically arrange them on large paper before drawing arrows.

What to look for

Provide students with a list of organisms from a local ecosystem (e.g., pond: algae, tadpole, frog, heron, bacteria). Ask them to draw arrows showing the energy flow and label each organism with its trophic level (producer, primary consumer, etc.).

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

Activity 02

• Stations Rotation
• 45 min · Small Groups

Stations Rotation: Energy Transfer Models

Set up stations with pyramid diagrams: one for numbers, biomass, and energy. Small groups add cutouts of organisms to each pyramid, calculating 10 percent energy loss between levels. Rotate and compare results.

Explain how energy is transferred between trophic levels in an ecosystem.

Facilitation Tip

During Station Rotation, place clear energy transfer models at each station with visible losses marked (e.g., heat symbols) to reinforce dissipation.

What to look for

Pose the scenario: 'Imagine a disease drastically reduces the population of rabbits in a forest ecosystem. Discuss with your group: What organisms would be most affected? How would the producers and top predators likely respond? What might happen to the decomposer population?'

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 03

• Simulation Game
• 35 min · Whole Class

Simulation Game: Disruption Role-Play

Assign whole class roles as organisms in a food web. Use balls of yarn to show connections. Remove primary consumers and observe chain reactions as predators 'starve' by dropping yarn. Discuss predictions versus outcomes.

Predict the impact on a food web if a primary consumer population significantly decreases.

Facilitation Tip

In the Disruption Role-Play, assign specific species to students so they experience firsthand how removals ripple through the web.

What to look for

On a slip of paper, have students write the definition of a producer in their own words and give one example found in an Ontario forest. Then, ask them to explain why only about 10% of energy is transferred to the next trophic level.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 04

• Concept Mapping
• 20 min · Individual

Individual: Prediction Journal

Students draw a food web, then predict and sketch changes if a species decreases. Use before-and-after comparisons with annotations on energy flow impacts.

Construct a food web for a local ecosystem, identifying producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Facilitation Tip

For the Prediction Journal, require students to sketch energy paths AND write one sentence explaining why energy is lost at each transfer.

What to look for

Provide students with a list of organisms from a local ecosystem (e.g., pond: algae, tadpole, frog, heron, bacteria). Ask them to draw arrows showing the 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

Teachers should start with local, familiar ecosystems to build relevance before introducing abstract trophic levels. Avoid rushing to the textbook definition of energy pyramids; instead, let students discover the 10% rule through repeated modeling. Research shows that when students physically manipulate energy flow models, their retention of transfer principles improves by 25-30% compared to passive diagram analysis.

Successful learning looks like students accurately labeling trophic levels, explaining why energy decreases between levels, and predicting how ecosystem disruptions cascade through food webs. Group work should show clear cause-and-effect reasoning about feeding relationships.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Card Sort: Local Food Web Builder, watch for students who arrange organisms in a circle to show energy cycling like the water cycle.

  Ask students to trace an energy path from the sun to the top predator using yarn, then point out that the yarn ends at the predator with no return to the sun, making energy flow visible.

• During Station Rotation: Energy Transfer Models, watch for students who assume any consumer can eat any organism at lower levels.

  Have students check labeled arrows on their station models to see that specific predators only connect to their actual prey species, reinforcing trophic specificity through the physical arrangement.

• During Simulation: Disruption Role-Play, watch for students who believe removing one species has minimal impact on the ecosystem.

  After each removal, ask the affected species to step aside physically, then have the group observe and record which other organisms lose connections or food sources, making ripple effects undeniable.

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Methods used in this brief

• Concept Mapping
• Stations Rotation
• Simulation Game