Name: Date:

Student Exploration: Food Chain

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.

Vocabulary Word Definition

Consumer an organism that cannot produce its own food and

must eat other plants and/or animals to get energy

Ecosystem a geographic area where plants, animals, and other

organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work
together to form a bubble of life.

Energy Pyramid a graphical representation of the energy found within

the trophic levels of an ecosystem.

Equilibrium the state in which all forces acting on the body are
balanced with an equal and opposite force

Food Chain a linear sequence of organisms through which

nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats
another

Population Image result for population definition biology

A population is defined as a group of individuals of
the same species living and interbreeding within a
given area

Predator an organism that consumes all or part of the body of

another living or recently killed organism, which is its
prey.

Prey The prey is the organism which the predator eats.

Producer any kind of green plant

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

The Food Chain Gizmo shows a food chain with hawks, snakes, rabbits, and grass. In this simulation, the
hawks eat snakes, the snakes eat rabbits, and the rabbits eat grass.

1. Producers are organisms that do not need to eat other organisms to obtain energy.

A. Which organism is a producer in this food chain? Grass

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 B. Where does the producer get its energy? sunlight

2. Consumers must eat other organisms for energy. Which organisms are consumers in this food chain?

rabbits, snakes and hawks

Gizmo Warm-up
The SIMULATION pane of the Gizmo shows the current population, or number, of
each organism in the food chain.

1. What are the current populations of each organism?

Hawks: 42 Snakes: 278 Rabbits: 2566 Grass: 27300

2. Select the BAR CHART tab, and click Play ( ). What do you notice about
each population as time goes by?

the consumers are increasing and the grass is decreasing

If populations don’t change very much over time, the ecosystem is in equilibrium.

3. Notice the populations decrease as you go from the bottom of the food chain to the top. Why do you think
this is so?

because the more you go up the less energy there is to keep the consumers alive

This diagram, showing decreasing populations at each level, is called an energy pyramid.

Activity A: Get the Gizmo ready:

Predator-prey ● Click Reset ( ).

relationships ● Check that the BAR CHART tab is selected.

Question: Predators are animals that hunt other animals, called prey. How do predator and prey
populations affect one another?

1. Observe: Run the Gizmo with several different starting conditions. You can use the + or – buttons to add or
remove organisms, or you can choose Diseased from the dropdown lists.

2. Form hypothesis: How do you think predator and prey populations affect one another?

.if there’s more predators they eat more prey then will die because there’s no prey

3. Predict: Based on your hypothesis, predict how changing the rabbit population will affect the other
organisms at first. Write “Increase” or “Decrease” next to each “Prediction” in the table.

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 Change Grass Snakes Hawks
Doubling Prediction: decrease Prediction:decrease Prediction: decrease
rabbit
population Result: decrease Result: increase Result: increase
Halving Prediction: increase Prediction: increase Prediction:increase
rabbit
population Result: decrease Result: increase Result: increase

4. Test: Add rabbits until the population is about twice as large as it was (200% of balance). Click Play, and
then Pause ( ) after approximately ONE month. Next to each “Result” line in the table, write “Increase” or
“Decrease.” Click Reset and then halve the rabbit population (50% of balance). Record the results for this
experiment in the table as well.

A. How did doubling the rabbit population affect the grass, snakes, and hawks at first?

By doubling the rabbit population, the amount of grass decreased and the snakes
and hawks increased_

B. How did halving the rabbit population affect the grass, snakes, and hawks at first?

by halving the rabbit population the grass increased while the snakes and hawks
decreased

5. Predict: Predict how changing the snake and hawk populations will affect the other organisms within the
first month. In the tables below, write your predictions.

Change Grass Rabbits Hawks

Doubling Prediction: Increase Prediction: increase Prediction: decrease
snake
population Result:increase Result: decrease Result: increase
Halving Prediction: decrease Prediction: decrease Prediction: decrease
snake
population Result: decrease Result: decrease Result: decrease

Change Grass Rabbits Snakes

Doubling Prediction: decrease Prediction: increase Prediction: decrease
hawk
population Result: decrease Result: increase Result: decrease

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 Halving Prediction: increase Prediction: decrease Prediction: increase
hawk
population Result: increase Result: decrease Result: Increase

6. Test: Click Reset. Try each experiment with the Gizmo. Record each result after one month.

A.How did increasing the snakes affect the grass? it increased the amount

Explain why: less rabbits more grass

B.How did increasing the hawks affect the rabbits? the amount of rabbits increased

Explain why: more hawks eat snakes, less snakes to eat the rabbits

7. Draw conclusions: In general, what effect did removing prey have on predators?

the less prey predators will consume the less predators there will be cause there’s less
food

What effect did removing predators have on prey?

the less predators the more prey since no one is eating them

Extend your thinking: In North America, many top predators, such as wolves, have been driven nearly to
extinction. What effect do you think this has on their main prey, deer? Write your answer on a separate sheet,
and/or discuss with your classmates and teacher.

Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:

Long-term ● Click Reset.

changes ● Select the GRAPH tab.

Question: An ecosystem is a group of living things and their physical environment. How do
ecosystems react to major disturbances?

1. Observe: Kill off most of the hawks using the – button, and then click Play. Observe the GRAPH for about
12 months, and then click Pause. What happens?

By killing off the hawks the snake and grass populations increased while the rabbits
decreased. This happened because there are more snakes since the hawks are not
consuming them causing the rabbit population to decrease which allowed the grass to

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 increase. the snake and grass population increased while the rabbit population decreased
because there were more snakes to eat all the rabbits.

2. Analyze: Explain why you think the population of each organism changed the way it did. (Use extra paper if
necessary.)

the grass increased because the rabbits weren’t eating it, and the snakes were eating all
the rabbits, and there were more snakes since most of the hawks were gone

3. Experiment: Click Reset. Try making other changes to the ecosystem. Use the + or – buttons, or choose
Diseased from the dropdown lists. Click Play and observe for at least 12 months. Record what happens
below.

I decreased the rabbits, hawks and snakes and increased the grass, after 12 months the
decreased slightly, the rabbits didn’t change but the snakes and hawks both increased

4. Summarize: Give at least one example of each of the following:

A. A major disturbance that the ecosystem was able to recover completely from.

A major disturbance that the ecosystem was able to recover completely from. a
decrease in predators and prey

B. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to stabilize at a new equilibrium.

A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to stabilize at a new equilibrium. a

decrease in snakes

C. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to completely collapse.

A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to completely collapse. the

elimination of gras

D. (Challenge) A major disturbance that almost caused a total collapse, but that the ecosystem was
able to recover from eventually.

taking away only some of the snakes

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