Virginia SOL LS.5.b
The Standard
energy flow is represented by food webs and energy pyramids
Virginia Standards of Learning for Science · The student will investigate and understand that biotic and abiotic factors affect an ecosystem. Key ideas include
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read and build food webs that show who eats whom. They trace energy from producers to consumers using arrows in the correct direction. They explain why less energy is available at higher trophic levels.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can place organisms in a food web and an energy pyramid. The student draws arrows from the food source to the eater. The student uses energy loss to explain why top consumers are fewer.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often point arrows toward the organism being eaten instead of toward the eater. They may think energy is recycled or increases at higher levels. Some place decomposers in only one trophic level.
How to Assess It
- Give students five organisms from one ecosystem. Ask them to draw a food web, place three organisms on an energy pyramid, and explain one energy decrease.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups organism cards and yarn; have them build a pond food web, then label each arrow with the direction of energy transfer.
Write: Why can a meadow support many grass plants but only a few hawks? Use energy loss in your explanation.
Play food web relay: teams place organism cards, draw correct arrows, and sort each organism into a trophic level for points.
Use a local Chesapeake Bay food web to predict how a decline in blue crabs could affect two other populations.
Free download
Printable LS.5.b Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to LS.5.b, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetKeep exploring
Related Standards
Turn this exact standard into a lesson
Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.
Also for this standard:Make a WorksheetMake a QuizMake a Sub Lesson