Assessment Check the Food Energy Chain activity sheets to make sure the students can give examples of members of a food web and the energy flow among them. Students can ask the conservationist why he or she is concerned about the problem and what he or she is doing to help. Teacher's Notes Food chains are the pathways by which living things obtain, use and transfer energy. Plants trap solar energy through the process of photosynthesis when they manufacture food and store it as chemical energy, commonly known as sugar. Plants are the basic producers of energy.
Animals are the ultimate consumers.
However, for the transfer of food energy to reach a carnivore, there must be a plant-eating animal in the chain. Food chains are usually interconnected. These interwoven chains make up a food web. For example, in the diagram below, an owl can be part of more than one chain. The sun's energy, reaching the earth in the form of solar radiation, drives all life and weather processes on earth.