Food Webs and Trophic Levels
Provided by: LabXchange|Published on: August 29, 2026
Grades: 6-AP
Type: Videos
Subjects: Biology
Authors: OutSCIder Classroom
Region: North Carolina, Tennessee
Languages: English
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This 10-minute video, set in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, explains how living things get their energy from the sun and how that energy travels through producers, consumers, and decomposers.
- Host Chris Anderson and conservation biologist Brooke Mitchell Norman describe how food webs show energy moving between trophic levels and how removing one species can cause cascading effects throughout an ecosystem.
Teaching Materials
Classroom Implementation:
- Discuss why the Sun is described as a nuclear reactor and how it provides energy for Earth.
- Use the segment on removing a species such as coyotes to prompt students to predict cascading effects on populations above and below it in a food web.
- The resource also provides a teacher's guide for an extended lesson that incorporates this video.
Extensions:
- After viewing, students could construct a food web using the Great Smoky Mountains producers, consumers, and decomposers named in the video.
- The ten percent energy transfer rule supports a follow-up calculation or energy-pyramid drawing activity.
- Have students predict what will happen in a local food web if a species is affected.
Differentiation:
- The video has a transcript and closed captions.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
About the Partner Provider
LabXchange
Harvard University’s LabXchange is a free online platform for science education, created with support from the Amgen Foundation. It makes learning science online flexible and fun, with interactives, lab simulations, and more.
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
