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

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Entire curriculum

1858 concepts · 9 subjects

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Teaching approaches

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1 approach

Selected Default Gakuva

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

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