Read the direction of a food web
Follow energy from a food source to its consumer.
Supplied materials
- Paper-only fictional ecosystem: grass is eaten by grasshoppers and rabbits; grasshoppers are eaten by frogs; rabbits and frogs are eaten by a hawk.
- For this activity, every arrow means energy passes from the organism being eaten to the organism eating it.
Learn the idea
A food-web arrow has a stated meaning. With this convention, grass → rabbit means energy in the grass can pass to the rabbit when it eats. Green plants capture light energy and store some of it in chemical forms; they do not create energy from nothing.
A web shows multiple relationships, so a change can have indirect effects. It does not, by itself, predict exact population sizes: food, shelter, disease and other conditions also matter.
- Draw an arrow from grass to each animal that eats it.
- Add grasshopper → frog, rabbit → hawk and frog → hawk.
- Trace one complete path from grass to hawk.
- Explain a possible indirect effect if grasshoppers become scarce.
See the method in action
One route is grass → grasshopper → frog → hawk. Less grasshopper food could reduce the food available to frogs, but the diagram alone cannot tell us exactly how many frogs remain.
Check your reasoning
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See the answer and explanation
rabbit → hawk, because energy in the rabbit passes to its consumer
The arrow tracks energy from the consumed organism to its consumer, so rabbit → hawk fits the stated relationship. The model does not say that hawks eat grasshoppers directly.
Take it further
Add a second fictional plant eaten by rabbits. Explain why losing grass may then have a different effect on rabbit food availability.
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Longer courses for learners ages 14+
These related courses have their own preparation and projects. They are not early-grade assignments.
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