Food Chains — Revision notes

Photosynthesis

The process plants use to turn light, water and carbon dioxide into food

Producer

An organism that makes its own food

Algae

Simple plant-like living things, from tiny ones drifting in the oceans to big seaweeds, that make their own food

Consumer

An organism that gets its food by eating other organisms

Food chain

A diagram showing how food passes from one living thing to the next

Arrow

In a food chain it means "is food for" and points towards the organism doing the eating

Primary consumer

The first consumer in a food chain

Secondary consumer

The second consumer in a food chain

Tertiary consumer

The third consumer in a food chain

Population

A group of organisms of the same type living in the same place

Model

A simpler way of showing something far more complicated

What this lesson covers

How well do you know each one? Be honest: red means go back over it.

• Explain how producers make their own food by photosynthesisNot yetSort ofGot it
• Describe how consumers get their food and why a mushroom is not a producerNot yetSort ofGot it
• Explain what a food chain shows and what its arrows meanNot yetSort ofGot it
• Identify the producer and the primary, secondary and tertiary consumers in a food chainNot yetSort ofGot it
• Outline why each name in a food chain stands for a whole populationNot yetSort ofGot it
• Suggest how a change in one population affects the rest of a food chainNot yetSort ofGot it

Test yourself

Cover the answer, say it out loud, then check the full quiz on the lesson page.

• Which of these is NOT a producer?
• Which way do the arrows point in a food chain?
• Cabbage, snail, thrush, hawk. If hawks increase, what happens to snails?

Topic quiz

15 questions on this topic only — not mixed with anything else, one at a time.

Spelling challenge

Read the definition, then type the correct spelling of the term. Uses the same terms as above.