Producers
TEKS Objective
The student is expected to investigate that most producers need sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make their own food, while consumers are dependent on other organisms for food.
Essential Understanding
The student knows and understands that living organisms within an ecosystem interact with one another and with their environment.
Science Background
Producer Power! Wisconsin Fast Plants (PDF) - A concise summary of what makes plants “producers,” and what “producer” actually means.
Producer Power!
Wisconsin Fast Plants, www.fastplants.org
Energy Flow Through Ecosystems: Annenberg Learner (website) - Producers (plants, algae and photosynthetic microbes) are the foundation of most ecosystems. Read the information on this page to learn how energy is transferred through an ecosystem from producers to consumers.
Energy Flow Through Ecosystems
Annenberg Learner, www.learner.org
Biology of Plants: Missouri Botanical Garden (website) - Background about plant needs, growth and development, with links to information of plant parts, how plants make food, plant adaptations, and more.
Signature Lesson
What Do Plants Need to Grow? Maryland Department of Natural Resources (website) - Students conduct investigations with several types of plant seeds grown in different conditions to discover that green plant producers require sunlight, water, soil and carbon dioxide to create their own food and survive.
What Do Plants Need to Grow?
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, www.dnr.maryland.gov
- Supporting Lessons
- Extensions
- Assessment Ideas
- Literature Connections
- Related
TEKS - Additional Resources
Supporting Lessons
Get a Life! Annenberg Learner (website) - Test small objects, including seeds, inside microcentrifuge tubes, to determine if they are alive. Extend the activity by identifying objects that are producers, and investigating what these objects need to live.
Get a Life!
Annenberg Learner, www.learner.org
The Wildlife Web I: Nature Works (website) - Investigate how producers (plants) get energy from the sun, and how consumers interact with and depend on plants, other organisms and nonliving components within their environments for food and survival. Includes extensions and links to additional resources.
The Wildlife Web I
Nature Works, www.nhptv.org/natureworks/
Do Plants Need Sunlight? Michigan Reach Out! (website) - Students learn that plants need sunlight to survive, and investigate what happens to plants that do not receive sufficient sunlight. Includes assessment and extensions.
Do Plants Need Sunlight
Michigan Reach Out! www.reachoutmichigan.org
Elaboration Lessons and Extensions
Plant Parts You Eat: BioEd Online (website) - Students discover that consumers depend on producers for food and learn about stored energy and nutrients in the parts of plants eaten by consumers (including humans).
Plant Parts You Eat
BioEd Online, www.bioedonline.org
Plants ‘R” Us: Texas A&M University (website) - By creating their own food webs, students investigate how producers make their own food, and learn that consumers depend on producers for survival.
Assessment Ideas
Have each student write a report describing the impact upon the web of life when animals within an ecosystem become extinct. Students should include examples of how extinctions have affected food webs in the past, and may affect them in the future.
Literature Connections
Sea Soup: Zooplankton. Cerullo, Mary (ISBN-13: 978-0884482192)
Food Chains and Webs: From Producers to Decomposers. Spilsbury, Louise (ISBN-13: 978-1403455109)
Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs. Lauber, P. and Keller, H. (ISBN-13: 978-0064451307)
The World of Food Chains with Max Axion, Super Scientist. O’Donnell, Liam (ISBN-13: 978-0736868396)
Food Webs: Interconnecting Food Chains. Gray, Susan (ISBN-13: 978-0756532611)
Pass the Energy, Please! Shaw McKinney, Barbara (ISBN-13: 978-1584690016)
What Are Food Chains and Food Webs? Vogel, Julia (ISBN-13: 978-1602707962)
Additional Resources
Plant Growth: National Grid for Learning Cymru (website) - Students can experiment with different growing conditions on virtual plants.
Plant Growth
HWB, hwb.wales.gov.uk
Photosynthesis: Fall's Most Valuable Lesson: Education World (website) - Provides engaging information and links to relevant sites.
TEKS Navigation
Grade 4
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