Draw a food chain diagram

« Many diagrams explaining the food chain can be found online. » Suggest that students, individually or in small groups, « search online » and choose the diagram that they think is easiest to understand. Students « will explain why they find a particular diagram easy or difficult to understand ».

This research (and analysis) of existing diagrams on the Internet « is intended to give a clear understanding of the three categories of living things » that interact in a food chain:

• Producers (very often plants).
• Consumers (herbivores and carnivores).
• Decomposers (bacteria and fungi). « Consumers feed on producers, which feed on the minerals » transformed by decomposers from the organic matter of consumers and dead producers (dead animals or plants).

The students will then imagine their own food chain diagrams. A food chain can be longer or shorter and students will choose the number of links in their chain. « They can include as many living things as they like, but must make sure to show all three categories » (producers, consumers and decomposers).

« The teacher will check the chains in written form before moving on to the drawing stage. » Students will choose to draw their chain in the shape of a pyramid or with arrows. « The drawings will be displayed in the classroom » and the students will present their work, explaining their choices to the other students.