5-PS3-1
The standard
Use models to describe that energy in animals' food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to trace energy through a food chain. They should show that sunlight is captured by plants, plants are eaten by animals, and animals use that stored energy for movement, growth, repair, and warmth. They are not calculating energy. They are explaining the path with a clear model.
Mastery looks like a labeled diagram or flow chart with arrows that make sense, starting with the sun and moving through plants to animals. Students often say animals “get energy from food” but leave out plants or the sun. They may also confuse energy with nutrients, matter, or heat.
Ways to teach it
- Have students build a sun to grass to rabbit to fox energy flow model using picture cards, arrows, and labels.
- Ask students to write: How did the energy in your lunch once come from the sun?
- Show a simple food chain diagram with one missing arrow label, and have students fill it in and explain it.
- Connect to a cafeteria meal by tracing one item, like a chicken sandwich, back to plants and sunlight.
Plan a lesson for 5-PS3-1
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related standards
- MS-LS1-7
Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter mov...
- HS-PS3-2
Develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as either motions of particles or energy stored in fields.
- HS-ESS1-1
Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the life span of the sun and the role of nuclear fusion in the sun's core to release energy that eventually reac...
- HS-LS1-5
Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy.