NEW AQA GCSE Trilogy (2016) Biology - Trophic levels & biomass

This lesson is designed for the NEW AQA Trilogy Biology GCSE, particularly the ‘Ecology’ SoW.

For more lessons designed to meet specification points for the NEW AQA Trilogy specifications for Biology, Chemistry and Physics please see my shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/SWiftScience

The lesson begins with an introduction of food chains, pupils are asked to watch a video and answer a set of questions. Once complete pupils can self-assess their work.

The next part of the lesson teaches students about trophic levels, firstly there is a diagram demonstrating the meaning of terms such as ‘producer’ and ‘primary consumer’ and how these correspond to trophic levels. Pupils can then have a go at matching the correct trophic level to the correct title, definition and example. Once complete pupils will self-assess their work using the mark scheme provided.

Students can now have a go at constructing their own food chain or food web using a set of animals cards, once arranged they should write the order in their books and correctly level the trophic levels and whether the organism is a producer, a primary, secondary or tertiary consumer.

The next part of the lesson focuses on biomass, firstly a definition is given to students and then they will need to watch a video on biomass and answer a set of questions. Once this task is complete they will be able to mark their work against the answers provided.

The last task is for pupils to complete a worksheet on biomass, the answers can be written into their books and either peer r self-assessed once complete.

The plenary task is for pupils to turn to the back of their books and write a detailed description of the flow of energy & changing biomass through a food chain using a selection of key words as prompts.

All resources are included at the end of the presentation. Thanks for looking, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section and any feedback would be appreciated :)