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Food Chain Answer Key

Vocabulary: consumer, ecosystem, energy pyramid, equilibrium, food chain, population,

predator, prey, producer

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

The Food Chain Gizmo shows a food chain with hawks, snakes, rabbits, and grass. In this
simulation, the hawks eat snakes, the snakes eat rabbits, and the rabbits eat grass.
[Note: The purpose of these questions is to activate prior knowledge and get students thinking.
Students are not expected to know the answers to the Prior Knowledge Questions.]

1. Producers are organisms that do not need to eat other organisms to obtain energy.

A. Which organism is a producer in this food chain? Grass is the producer.

B. Where does the producer get its energy? Grass gets its energy from the Sun.

2. Consumers must eat other organisms for energy. Which organisms are consumers in this

food chain? The rabbits, snakes, and hawks are all consumers.

Gizmo Warm-up
The SIMULATION pane of the Gizmo shows the current population,
or number, of each organism in the food chain.

1. What are the current populations of each organism?

Hawks: 42 Snakes: 278 Rabbits: 2,566 Grass: 27,300

2. Select the BAR CHART tab, and click Play ( ). What do you
notice about each population as time goes by?

The populations stay the same over time. (Only the grass changes a tiny bit.)

If populations don’t change very much over time, the ecosystem is in equilibrium.

3. Notice the populations decrease as you go from the bottom of the food chain to the top. Why
do you think this is so?

It takes a lot of grass to support each rabbit, it takes a lot of rabbits to support each snake,
and it takes a lot of snakes to feed each hawk.

This diagram, showing decreasing populations at each level, is called an energy pyramid.

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Activity A: Get the Gizmo ready:

Predator-prey • Click Reset ( ).
relationships • Check that the BAR CHART tab is selected.

Question: Predators are animals that hunt other animals, called prey. How do predator
and prey populations affect one another?

1. Observe: Run the Gizmo with several different starting conditions. You can use the + or –
buttons to add or remove organisms, or you can choose Diseased from the dropdown lists.

2. Form hypothesis: How do you think predator and prey populations affect one another?

Answers will vary. [When there are increased predator populations, prey populations will
decrease. When there are decreased predator populations, prey populations will increase.
When there are decreased prey populations, predator populations will decrease, and when
there are increased prey populations, predator populations will increase.

3. Predict: Based on your hypothesis, predict how changing the rabbit population will affect the
other organisms at first. Write “Increase” or “Decrease” next to each “Prediction” in the table.

Predictions will vary.

Change Grass Snakes Hawks

Doubling Prediction: Prediction: Prediction:
rabbit
population Result: Decrease Result: Increase Result: Increase
Halving Prediction: Prediction: Prediction:
rabbit
population Result: Increase Result: Decrease Result: Decrease

4. Test: Add rabbits until the population is about twice as large as it was (200% of balance).
Click Play, and then Pause ( ) after approximately ONE year. Next to each “Result” line in
the table, write “increase” or “decrease.” Click Reset and then halve the rabbit population
(50% of balance). Record the results for this experiment in the table as well.

A. How did doubling the rabbit population affect the grass, snakes, and hawks at first?

The grass population decreased, while the snakes and hawks increased.

B. How did halving the rabbit population affect the grass, snakes, and hawks at first?

The grass population increased, while the snakes and hawks decreased.

(Activity A continued on next page)

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Activity A (continued from previous page)

5. Predict: Predict how changing the snake and hawk populations will affect the other
organisms within the first year. In the tables below, write your predictions.

Predictions will vary.

Change Grass Rabbits Hawks

Doubling Prediction: Prediction: Prediction:
snake
population Result: Increase Result: Decrease Result: Increase
Halving Prediction: Prediction: Prediction:
snake
population Result: Decrease Result: Increase Result: Decrease

Change Grass Rabbits Snakes

Doubling Prediction: Prediction: Prediction:
hawk
population Result: Decrease Result: Increase Result: Decrease
Halving Prediction: Prediction: Prediction:
hawk
population Result: Increase Result: Decrease Result: Increase

6. Test: Click Reset. Try each experiment with the Gizmo. Record each result after one year.

A. How did increasing the snakes affect the grass? The grass population increased.

Explain why: The snakes ate many rabbits, so there were fewer rabbits to eat grass.

B. How did increasing the hawks affect the rabbits? The rabbit population increased.

Explain why: The hawks ate snakes, so there were fewer snakes to eat rabbits.

7. Draw conclusions: In general, what effect did removing prey have on predators? Removing
prey caused predator populations to decrease.

What effect did removing predators have on prey? Removing predators caused prey
populations to increase.

Extend your thinking: In North America, many top predators, such as wolves, have been driven
nearly to extinction. What effect do you think this has on their main prey, deer? Write your
answer on a separate sheet, and/or discuss with your classmates and teacher.

Answers will vary. [Deer populations have grown tremendously, causing many forests to be
over-browsed. Hunting is one method used to control deer populations.]

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Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:

Long-term • Click Reset.
changes • Select the GRAPH tab.

Question: An ecosystem is a group of living things and their physical environment. How
do ecosystems react to major disturbances?

1. Observe: Kill off most of the hawks using the – button, and then click Play. Observe the
GRAPH for about 12 years, and then click Pause. What happens?

At first the snakes and grass increase while the rabbits decrease. The snake population
then drops back to normal as the rabbit and hawk populations recover. After 12 years all
populations are close to 100% of balance.

2. Analyze: Explain why you think the population of each organism changed the way it did.
(Use extra paper if necessary.)

The snake population increased at first because there weren’t many hawks eating snakes.
This caused the rabbits to decrease and the grass to increase. The decreased rabbit
population, along with increased hawks, caused the snake population to return to its
equilibrium level.

3. Experiment: Click Reset. Try making other changes to the ecosystem. Use the + or –
buttons, or choose Diseased from the dropdown lists. Click Play and observe for at least 12
years. Record what happens on another sheet of paper or in your notes.

Experiments will vary. Check all student work.

4. Summarize: Give at least one example of each of the following:

A. A major disturbance that the ecosystem was able to recover completely from.

Answers will vary. Example: Reducing the hawks to nearly zero.

B. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to stabilize at a new equilibrium.

Answers will vary. Example: Removing all of the hawks.

C. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to completely collapse.

Answers will vary. Example: Removing all of the grass.

D. (Challenge) A major disturbance that almost caused a total collapse, but that the
ecosystem was able to recover from eventually.

Answers will vary. Example: Reducing the rabbit population to 300.

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