Food chains and webs

This 50-minute KS4 Biology lesson introduces food chains, food webs, interdependence, and energy transfer in a clear, structured, and SEN-friendly way. Created for students in an SEN Secondary School and designed to support AQA Trilogy Combined Science.

Students build understanding through explicit teaching, scaffolded questioning, regular checking for understanding, mini-whiteboard retrieval, colour-coded visual support, and independent application tasks.

Colour coding is used throughout to reduce cognitive load and help students visually track food chains within the larger food web.

Lesson Structure:
Starter – What would happen if all rabbits disappeared?

Explicit Teaching – Food Chains & Energy Transfer:
Students are introduced to: Interdependence, Food chains, Producers
Consumers, Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores, .Predator vs prey

Students follow a clear, repeated food chain example to reduce cognitive overload while building confidence with new vocabulary.

Regular quick checks for understanding are built in throughout via whiteboard activities to identify producers, predators, prey, herbivores, carnivores, and consumers from a new food chain example.

Food Webs:
Students learn how multiple food chains connect to form a food web. Colour-coded arrows help students visually identify different linked food chains more easily.

Prediction Task – Interdependence:
Students apply their understanding by predicting what would happen if one organism (moth larvae) disappeared from the ecosystem.

Independent Task 1 – Food Chain Labelling:
Students label a food chain using: Producer, Primary consumer, Secondary, consumer, Tertiary consumer, Herbivore, Carnivore, Predator, Prey

Independent Task 2 – Food Web Application:
Students apply their knowledge to a larger food web cut and stick activity.

Plenary – Retrieval:
Students complete a “Which keyword am I?” retrieval activity to check understanding of key ecological vocabulary.

Includes:
Fully resourced PowerPoint
2 worksheets - slides 1 and 2
Answer slides included
Colour-coded visual scaffolding to support SEN/LAP learners
SEN-friendly scaffolded learning