Florida SC.4.L.17.2
The Standard
Explain that animals, including humans, cannot make their own food and that when animals eat plants or other animals, the energy stored in the food source is passed to them.
Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain that animals, including people, depend on other organisms for food. They trace stored energy from plants to the animals that eat them, including through simple food chains.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given grass, a rabbit, and a hawk, a student draws arrows from food to eater and explains each transfer. The student can also trace a person's food back to plant or animal sources.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think animals get energy directly from sunlight or produce food inside their bodies. They may reverse food chain arrows or forget that humans are animals. Some think energy appears only when food is eaten.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Arrange sunlight, grass, cow, and human in an energy pathway. Draw arrows showing energy movement and explain how the cow and human receive energy.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs organism picture cards and yarn, then have them build a food chain with yarn arrows pointing from food to eater.
Ask students to write: Where did the energy in your breakfast begin, and how did it reach you?
Play Energy Arrow Relay, where teams arrange plant and animal cards and earn points for correctly explaining each arrow.
Examine a cafeteria lunch, sort each item by plant or animal source, and trace its stored energy back to plants.
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Printable SC.4.L.17.2 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to SC.4.L.17.2, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- SC.4.L.17.3
Trace the flow of energy from the Sun as it is transferred along the food chain through the producers to the consumers.
- SC.7.L.17.1
Explain and illustrate the roles of and relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in the process of energy transfer in a food web.
- SC.4.L.16.2
Explain that although characteristics of plants and animals are inherited, some characteristics can be affected by the environment.
- SC.3.L.17.2
Recognize that plants use energy from the Sun, air, and water to make their own food.
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