SeaTrek Science Minutes: Food Chains
Channel: Mote SEA Trek
Date: 2015-07-27

Episode 1: Food Chains

Focus Question: How are we part of the food chain?

Standards

National Science Standard
Content Standard C: Life Science (Grades 5-8)

Next Generation Sunshine State Standard

Grade 5: SC.5.L.15 Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms
  SC.5.L.17 Interdependence
Grade 6: SC.6.L.14 Organization and Development of Living Organisms
Grade 7: SC.7.L.17 Interdependence
  Benchmark SC.7.L.17.1
Grade 8: SC.8.L.18 Matter and Energy Transformations
Vocabulary

Algae any of various chiefly aquatic, eukaryotic, photosynthetic organisms, ranging in size from single-celled forms to the giant kelp. Algae were once considered to be plants but are now classified separately because they lack true roots, stems, leaves and embryos

Consumer an organism requiring complex organic compounds for food which it obtains by preying on other organisms or by eating particles of organic matter

Decomposer any of various organisms (as many bacteria and fungi) that return constituents of organic substances to ecological cycles by feeding on and breaking down dead protoplasm

Food Chain an arrangement of the organisms of an ecological community according to the order of predation in which each uses the next usually lower member as a food source; also known as the food web

Organism a living being, plant or animal

Phytoplankton small, free-floating aquatic plant life in the ocean

Plankton the collection of small or microscopic organisms, including algae and protozoans, that float or drift in great numbers in fresh or saltwater, especially at or near the surface, and serve as food for fish and other large organisms

Predator a living organism that preys, destroys, or devours other living organisms

Producer an autotrophic organism (as a green plant) viewed as a source of biomass that can be consumed by other organisms

Zooplankton small, planktonic animals that live in the ocean; feed on phytoplankton
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TRANSCRIPT

Kasey
Hey everybody, Kasey here, just enjoying the simple pleasures of the food chain. Well, not only are fruit and vegetables a part of the food chain, but you are too. Don't believe me? Well check this out.

At the bottom of the foodchain we have things like plants that capture energy from the sun and covert that energy into nutrients that plants and animals use to grow and live. Now, since green plants and their microscopic cousins like algae are the only organisms that can produce these nutrients from the sun's energy, they are called producers.

All other organism must get their energy from eating other organisms, either plants or animals. In the ocean, the producers include microscopic plants called phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are eaten by microscopic animals called zooplankton or even some fish like sardines. Animals that eat living plants or animals are called consumers.

On land, grass and shrubs are the producers and are eaten by small consumers like insects or large animals like horses or cows. Sometimes bigger or stronger consumers eat the smaller consumers. The connections between all of these organisms are known as the food chain or sometimes the food web.

Unfortunately, animals lose a lot of energy as heat when they run, hunt and play. That's why as we move up the food chain there are less and less of the top level consumers like sharks for instance and much more of the smaller consumers like sardines. Eventually, all producers and consumers die and when they do the final organisms in the foood web make their debut. Decomposers break down dead animals and plants, releasing their final energy and recycling nutrients to become raw materials that other organisms will use to start the cycle all over again.

Well, I think I am going to take what I didn't finish out to the compost heap and let the decomposers do their job. Clock's a' ticking, so I'll see you next time.
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Producer: Dr. David Niebuhr
Director: Elizabeth Metz
Host: Kasey Gaylord
Videographers: Mark Miller, Jason Robertshaw
Editor: Jason Robertshaw

Science Minutes was made possible through a generous grant from Mr. David Weinberg and Mrs. Sylvia Radov, Chicago, IL.