Stage 6 Science Member

The Web at Baobab Hill

Adventure · Teaches: Food chains, food webs and energy transfer · Featuring Tryphonia

On Baobab Hill, Tryphonia drew arrows in her notebook. “Every arrow,” she said, “shows where the energy (the power to live and grow) goes, from the eaten to the eater.”

It all starts with the sun. Grass is a producer (it makes its own food from sunlight). A grasshopper eats the grass, it is a primary consumer (the first eater).

A lizard eats the grasshopper (a secondary consumer), and a hawk eats the lizard (a top predator, the hunter at the top).

Explore in 3D

The baobab on the hill, shade, home and food for the animals in the web. Spin it and imagine the food chains that begin at its leaves.

African Baobab Tree by DATEC_Studio on Sketchfab · CC Attribution

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This story teaches

Food chains, food webs and energy transfer

Science

Answer guide, for grown-ups

Ask each question, then compare. A child’s own words are perfect as long as the idea is right.

1. Put this chain in order: hawk, grass, lizard, grasshopper.

Grass, then grasshopper, then lizard, then hawk.

✓ Understood if the child orders grass, grasshopper, lizard, hawk.

2. What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?

A food chain is a single line of who eats whom, while a food web is many food chains linked together.

✓ Understood if the child says a chain is one line and a web is many chains joined.

3. Where does all the energy first come from?

It all first comes from the sun.

✓ Understood if the child says the sun.

4. What might happen to the hawks if all the grass died?

The grasshoppers would starve, then the lizards, and then the hawks would have nothing left to eat.

✓ Understood if the child traces the loss up the chain to the hawks.

Maths Moment: Only about 1/10 of the energy passes on, and 1/10 of 1000 is 100, so roughly 100 units reach the grasshopper.

For parents, Cambridge curriculum

Mapped to these Cambridge Primary objectives. Open a framework to verify.

Science

Stage 6 · Biology
Construct food chains and webs and describe energy transfer between organisms.
Verify in Cambridge Science (0097) ↗