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ScienceEcosystems & HabitatsAges 11–12

Energy Loss Between Levels

Explain how energy is transferred between trophic levels in a food chain, why energy is lost at each stage, and use pyramids of biomass/numbers to represent this

Lesson

Set out your lesson

Practise the bounded task in Energy Loss Between Levels; see exact limits before inferring broader coverage.

Before teaching

Use this short check, then start teaching.

Activity

Can interpret a labelled quantity and simple percentages; energy and biomass are different quantities.

Policy

Exact directed source edges retained; earlier authorship is not learner attainment.

Printer, credit, and teaching notes

Exact directed source edges retained; earlier authorship is not learner attainment.

Materials

  • These supplied stage cards

  • Scrap paper and pencil; oral/pointing response where appropriate

Sequence

  • Read readiness and decide on support without treating prerequisite authoring as learner readiness.

  • Open Show first and explain its model.

  • Use Guided Try with support and its separate adult key.

  • Close Show and guided keys before Try, unless this Try is explicitly supported.

  • Reflect on an actual attempt, including help used.

No Printer

Use the supplied screen cards; copying the exact task to paper is optional, not required.

Privacy

Use only invented scenarios and optional anonymous local notes. Do not request names, photos, family finances, medical data, accounts or uploads. Stop uncomfortable physical activity.

Use the complete materials on screen or print only the current sheet. Keep adult guidance out of learner view.

Next: Show

Adult extras
Teaching limits and safe use

These are finite task opportunities, not proof of mastery. Record what was attempted and what support was used.

  • Fictional biomass and energy models; no measured ecosystem efficiency. Universal 10% and a strict five-level limit are not asserted.

Use only invented scenarios and optional anonymous local notes. Do not request names, photos, family finances, medical data, accounts or uploads. Stop uncomfortable physical activity.

Share teaching feedback

Continue learning
Share and support
Family records and proof options

Keep a record of your learning

Save photos, notes, and attendance. Export a proof packet for compliance or portfolio reviews.

View learner plans ($12/mo per learner) See sample family archive

Learning resources

Extra practice links — they do not replace Gakuva’s teaching approach.

NASA Climate Kids · Practice link — not the full lesson

Plants and Animals

Open practice (new tab)
Before you open · source notes

Plants and Animals supports Energy Loss Between Levels. An adult previews and guides; this is a learning page, not a scored quiz.

Free educational page, no sign-in required for the tested path.

Before you open

Ask the learner one fact they learned and one question they still have.

Opening this link does not save learning or assess mastery.

Source, access and review notes

Public NASA Climate Kids page. An anonymous GET on 2026-11-12 returned HTTP 200 with no login or payment prompt for this URL. Opening the link does not save practice or assess mastery. An adult should preview and guide the learner.

NASA Climate Kids. “Plants and Animals.” External page; Gakuva does not copy, host, embed, or redistribute materials.

Unknown — link only

Check understanding

  • Explains that only about 10% of energy passes from one trophic level to the next
  • Constructs a pyramid of biomass from data and explains its shape
  • Identifies where energy is lost at each trophic level (heat, movement, waste)
  • Explains why food chains rarely have more than five trophic levels
“If your child was asked why there are so many more plants than foxes in a field, could they explain how energy gets lost at every step of a food chain and what that means for the size of each population?”

Curriculum record

Type
Conceptual
Subject
Science
Domain
Ecosystems & Habitats
Age range
Ages 11–12

Standards

ngss-ms:MS-LS2-1ngss-ms:MS-LS2-4uk-nc-2013:KS3.Sci.Bio.Ecosystem.1