Instructional Material · 6.MS-LS2-3

Energy Highway: Ecosystem Dynamics

A 30-minute Grade 6 demo lesson using food-web models to trace energy from the Sun through producers and consumers, then predict how population changes ripple through an ecosystem.

MA STE 6.MS-LS2-3 MA STE 6.MS-LS2-1 Modeling Cause & Effect DOK 1–4 ELL Sentence Frames

Lesson Aim & Essential Question

Aim

Students describe how energy moves within an ecosystem and explain how a change in one plant or animal population can affect other organisms in the food web.

Main Question

Using one or more food-web diagrams, identify the source of the energy in the food web and describe how that energy moves within the web.

Student-Facing Objective

Today we become Ecosystem Detectives. We will use food-web maps to track how energy moves from the Sun to producers and then to consumers. We will also predict what happens to the ecosystem “neighborhood” when one organism population changes.

Because the ______ population changed, the ______ population will likely ______ because ______.

Food Web Model: Energy Flow

The lesson treats the food web as an “Energy Highway.” Arrows are not merely “who eats whom”; they show the direction energy moves into the consumer.

Instructional Sequence: I Do · We Do · You Do

Hook · 4 minStudents follow arrows backward and identify the Sun as the “starting engine.”

I Do · 8 minTeacher models producer, consumer, decomposer, photosynthesis, and arrow meaning.

We Do · 10 minClass analyzes the toad-decrease scenario using think-pair-share and a causal sentence frame.

You Do · 8 minStudents complete worksheet items and a short MCAS-aligned exit ticket.

Assessment Architecture

Assessment	Purpose	Evidence of Mastery
Warm-up	Activate prior knowledge about conservation of matter and solar energy.	Students explain that atoms are transformed, not destroyed, and that breakfast energy ultimately traces back to solar energy.
Worksheet	Use a food-web model to identify producers, photosynthesis, consumer roles, and population-change effects.	Students identify producers, name photosynthesis, and explain at least three organism-population effects from the toad decline.
Exit Ticket	Check individual mastery with MCAS-aligned selected-response questions.	Students select plants as producers, interpret arrows as energy transfer, and predict plant increase after rabbit loss.
DOK Mastery Assessment	Extend from recall to strategic prediction and synthesis.	Students distinguish energy flow from matter cycling and predict cascading effects using evidence and cause/effect reasoning.

DOK Progression

DOK 1

Identify the Sun as the original energy source; define producer and consumer.

DOK 2

Explain arrow direction and compare producer, consumer, and decomposer roles.

DOK 3–4

Predict cascading population shifts and synthesize energy-flow versus matter-cycling concepts.

Language Supports

Vocabulary previews: producer, consumer, decomposer, photosynthesis, primary energy source, energy transfer.
Causal sentence frames using if, then, because, therefore, and as a result.
Visual diagramming so multilingual learners can anchor vocabulary to arrows, roles, and organism relationships.
Talk moves through think-pair-share before written explanation.