Mystery Science Food Chains

He loves growing all sorts of plants in it that he can eat. Lettuce is one of his favorite things to eat from his garden.

Ezequiel has a garden.

Drag and Drop

In the space below, drag and drop the words to make a food chain. Remember that the arrows in food chains point from the food to the thing eating the food, so the arrow should point from the lettuce to Ezequiel.​ ​ ​

Placeholder

​------>

Placeholder

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

lettuce

Ezequiel

A few weeks after the parsley started to grow, Ezequiel looked out his window. There were more birds in his garden than he had ever seen before! He went outside to see why so many birds had flown in.

​Recently, Ezequiel decided to start growing parsley in his garden.

Ezequiel saw something else surprising: his parsley plants were covered in caterpillars! And sadly, almost all of the parsley had been eaten. Ezequiel wanted to figure out what was going on, so he read a book on gardening. He learned that the birds are robins, and the caterpillars are swallowtail caterpillars. Here is what he read in his book:

Drag and Drop

Use what you read from Ezequiel's book to make a food chain that includes caterpillars, parsley, and birds. Remember, arrows go from the food to the thing eating the food.

​

Placeholder

---> ​

Placeholder

--->​

Placeholder

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

parsley

caterpillars

birds

Multiple Choice

Why did so many robins come to Ezequiel's garden when he planted parsley? The food chain you made and the information you read might help you explain why this happened.

• Robins like to eat parsley, so when the robins smelled the parsley, they came to Ezequiel's garden to eat it.

• Robins don't eat parsley, but they like the smell of it. When the robins smelled the parsley, it attracted them to Ezequiel's garden.

• The parsley attracted swallowtail caterpillars. The swallowtail caterpillars eat the parsley, and the robins eat the swallowtail caterpillars.

Choose true or false for the questions that follow.

If Ezequiel wants to get rid of the swallowtail caterpillars in his garden, what should he do?

Dropdown

Ezequiel should pull out the parsley plants and plant carrots instead. ​

Select answer

​

Dropdown

Ezequiel should get a cat to scare the robins away. ​

Select answer

Dropdown

Ezequiel ​should pull out the parsley plants and plant a bush that grows berries. ​

Select answer

Before Ezequiel could do anything more to change his garden, he found a new problem. Something was digging tunnels under all of the plants! He went back to his gardening book, and he found this about an animal that digs tunnels:

Drag and Drop

The garden now has gophers, swallowtail caterpillars, parsley, and robins. There are no other animals, but there are many plants. Draw a new food chain that includes gophers.

​

Placeholder

​---->

Placeholder

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

parsley (and other plants)

gophers

Multiple Choice

Ezequiel wants parsley. Will the gophers help him have more parsley? Look back to the food chains you’ve made to help answer this question.

• Yes, because gophers don't eat parsley and will leave the plants alone.

• No, because the gophers will eat the parsley plants. There will be less (or none) left for Ezequiel.

Multiple Choice

Ezequiel wants to get rid of the swallowtail caterpillars. Will the gophers help him get rid of the swallowtail caterpillars?

• Yes, because the gophers eat parsley. If the gophers eat the parsley, the swallowtail caterpillars won’t have anything left to eat for themselves.

• No, because gophers don't have anything to do with the caterpillars.

Match

Match the following words and definitions.

• an animal that is hunted by and eaten by another animal

• an animal that only eats plants

• an animal that eats only other animals

• an animal that eats both plants and animals

• an animal that hunts and eats other animals

prey

herbivore

carnivore

omnivore

predator

• prey

• herbivore

• carnivore

• omnivore

• predator

Match

Match each word with its picture example.

consumer

producer

food chain

food web

• consumer

• producer

• food chain

• food web