MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

SECONDARY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME

GRADE 9

INTEGRATED SCIENCE

Week 8 Lesson 2
Topic: Nutrition in Plants

Sub-topic: Food chain

Objectives: After reading and looking at the diagrams given students will:

 Define accurately what is a food chain.

 Identify all the components of a food chain accurately.
 Correctly list the two types of food chain.
 Construct two examples of a food chain using at least four organisms

Content

Definition

Food Chain- a series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food.

Types of food chain

 Aquatic food chain

 Terrestrial food chain
Aquatic food chain
This is a simple linkage of producers to consumers through feeding relationships that occur in
water.

An example of an aquatic food chain

Terrestrial food chain
This is a simple linkage of producers to
consumers through feeding relationships that
occur on land.

An example of a terrestrial food chain

Components of a Food Chain

The food chain is made up of four main parts - the sun, producers, consumers, and decomposers.
Our focus is on the first three parts. Producers include all green plants. They use energy from the
sun to make food. Consumers do not make their own food; they eat other plants or animals.

Types of consumers

 Primary Consumers
 Secondary Consumers
 Tertiary Consumers

The picture above shows the main components of a food

chain.
Primary Consumers - The organisms that eat the producers are the primary consumers.
The primary consumers are herbivores (vegetarians).

Secondary Consumers - The organisms that eat the primary consumers are meat eaters
(carnivores) and are called the secondary consumers

Tertiary Consumers - a carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on other
carnivores; an animal that feeds only on secondary consumers.

Rules for drawing a food chain

1. All food chains begin with a Producer (Autotroph or Plant).

2. All food chains end with one or more tertiary consumers.

3. Arrows in a food chain show the direction of the energy flow.

Homework

List four examples each of the following:

 Primary Consumers
 Secondary Consumers
 Tertiary Consume

References

Bernard, Myrna et.al (2003) Science in Daily Life Book 3 (Unit 5) Ministry of Education

https://www2.nau.edu/lrm22/lessons/food_chain/food_chain.html#:~:text=The%20organisms%2
0that%20eat%20the%20producers%20are%20the%20primary%20consumers.&text=The%20pri
mary%20consumers%20are%20herbivores,are%20called%20the%20secondary%20consumers.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tertiary-
consumer#:~:text=noun%20Ecology.,feeds%20only%20on%20secondary%20consumers