Students’ Learning Outcomes
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Define producers, consumers and decomposers and explain their importance in food chain.
● Make a simple food chain to show relationship among producers, consumers and decomposers.
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Information for the teacher:
● Plants are called producers because they are able to use light energy from sun to produce food (sugar) from carbon dioxide and water.
● Animals cannot make their own food so they must eat plants and/or other animals.
● Animals that eat only plants are called Herbivores or consumers-1 e.g. rabbit, sheep, goat, cow etc.
● Animals that eat other animals are called Carnivores or consumers –II e.g. lion, tiger, leopard etc.
● Animals that eat other carnivores are called consumers-III e.g. snake, hawk etc.
● Decomposers feed of dead bodies of plants and animals e.g. bacteria and fungi.
● A food chain is sequence of “who eat whom” in an environment.
Grass mouse snake Hawk (Eagles)
Duration : 40 minutes
Material / Resources
● Picture of animals and plants, charts of food chain, paper.
Worm up Activity
Ask a round of questions relevant to the topic:
→ From where do we get our food?
→ Why do we need food?
→ What do plants and animals give us?
→ Who gives food to animals?
→ Who gives food to plants?
→ How we animals and plants are relate to each other?
Development
Activity 1
→ Demonstrate some examples of simple food chains. Introduce the concept of plants as producers i.e. organism that make their own food through photosynthesis. Introduce the concept of animals as consumers i.e. organism that eat producers or other consumers. Explain the role of decomposers in all food chai
→ Ask students to make a food chain by making a sequence of the following organisms. The students will also mention the producer and consumers
Activity 2
→ Introduce a complex food chain i.e. with more than one consumer. Categorize the consumers as consumer-I, consumer-II and so on.
Sum up / Conlusion
Each living thing, whether it is a plant or animal, depends on nutrients and energy to survive. Food chains tell us how the food is passed from organism to organism. All food chain start with plants that make their own food. These are called producers. Next come organisms that eat plants. These organisms are called consumers-I and we know that they are Herbivores. Then come the animals that eat Herbivores. They are called consumers-II and we know that they are carnivores. In all food chain; when any organism diet, it is eaten and broken down by decomposers. Some bacteria and fungi are Decomposers.
Assessment
Activity
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Producer → Consumer-I → Consumer-II → Consumer-III → Consumer-IV |
● Teacher is also required to involve the student in solving the problems given in the exercise at end of unit / chapter.
Activity
● Make a table on the board and ask them to copy the table on their note book.
● Ask students to link the terms with the statements.
Follow up
● Ask students to complete the food chains by filling in the blank boxes with correct consumers or producers given in the underneath food chains.