Task 1
Choose one plant food and one animal food from a familiar meal. Draw or name their living sources. Explain why the person eating them is a consumer.
AC9S4U01 • Homework
Producers, Consumers, Decomposers and Food Chains worksheet
Complete eight written and practical tasks. An adult checks your actual work using the guidance below.
Open practiceEight written and practical tasks
Use separate paper for drawings. Work with an adult for outdoor observation and source reading; photographs are a suitable alternative.
Task 2
With an adult, observe a garden or use a labelled habitat photograph. Record one producer, one animal consumer and one decomposer. Give an observed action or reliable source for each role. Do not touch unknown organisms.
Task 3
A leaf is eaten by a caterpillar, which is eaten by a small bird. Draw the chain with two arrows. Label the producer and consumers and explain one arrow in a full sentence.
Task 4
Compare your land chain with algae → water flea → small fish in a pond. Write one similarity in roles and one difference in organisms or habitat.
Task 5
Draw dead leaves and a dead insect connected to fungi or bacteria. Explain what decomposers do and why a plant may benefit later. Use pictures or information sources; do not grow or handle mould.
Task 6
Read the short attributed Country/Place account in the Topic Guide with an adult. Explain in your own words what being integral to Country/Place means. Record the named source or People and one connection between people and their environment. An adult may use the linked ACARA background for more detail.
Task 7
A camera records a fox catching a small native mammal. State the feeding relationship, predict a possible effect of repeated predation and explain one thing this single observation cannot prove.
Task 8
In a model habitat, mice eat seeds also used by native birds. Draw a before-and-after seed supply after many seeds are eaten. Predict an effect on birds and name two observations that would help check it.
Answers and adult review checks
Task 1
Answer: Examples: bread comes from wheat; an egg comes from a hen. The person obtains food from other organisms.
Check actual source names rather than shop names, one plant and one animal source, and a feeding-based reason. Use food pictures; no tasting is needed.
Task 2
Answer: A green plant makes food; an animal eats plant or animal material; fungi or bacteria break down dead material.
Check three named examples plus role evidence. Accept needs more evidence for an uncertain observation; provide a labelled photograph if decomposers are not visible.
Task 3
Answer: Leaf/plant → caterpillar → small bird. The plant is the producer; caterpillar and bird are consumers.
Check both arrows point from food to eater and the sentence identifies which organism receives food. Do not accept arrows described as chasing.
Task 4
Answer: Both have a producer followed by two consumers. One is on land with plant/caterpillar/bird; the other is aquatic with algae/water flea/fish.
Require an explicit role similarity and a specific difference, not only that the pictures look different.
Task 5
Answer: Decomposers break down dead matter from plants and animals and help return nutrients that plants can use.
Check dead material from two feeding roles, decomposition and nutrient return. Correct claims that decomposers manufacture sunlight or only act on the last predator.
Task 6
Answer: People belong within relationships with land, waters and living things. The ACARA source includes Noonuccal scholar Karen Martin-Booran Mirraboopa.
Check source attribution and an explained connection. Do not require a cultural practice to be invented or claimed for all communities. Adults can read the source aloud.
Task 7
Answer: Native mammal → fox. Repeated predation may reduce prey numbers; one recording does not prove the cause of every missing animal.
Check food-to-eater direction, a cautious prediction and a valid evidence limit. This is a supplied observation; do not search for foxes or animal remains.
Task 8
Answer: Fewer seeds may mean less food for birds. Check seed supply and bird feeding or counts using comparable observations.
Inspect the two actual drawings, reduction in shared food, a linked prediction and two useful observations. No exact numerical population change is justified by this model.