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Science 5: Food Webs 16785 Views


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Description:

If Spiderman could spin these he'd never be hungry again. Today we're learning all about food webs. Which you actually can't eat, by the way...sorry to get your hopes up.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:05

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

There are two words that you'll hear in your life that are more important and meaningful [Boy with his hands in the air]

00:17

than all the other words combined.

00:19

“Taco night.”

00:20

Those two words truly are magical, aren't they? [Long line of tacos appear]

00:23

Unfortunately, every night is not taco night.

00:26

It might be “casserole night” or the dreaded “grandma's weird stew night." [Dino sat next to a bowl of stew with eyeballs in it]

00:29

The point we're trying to make here is that your diet is probably pretty diverse.

00:33

But, even so, if we were to put all that food into a food web…well, it wouldn't really [Different foods on a spider web]

00:37

look all too interesting.

00:39

It'd be you on top and all that food below. [Man meditating on a pile of food]

00:42

Thankfully, not all food webs are super boring.

00:45

But…wait.

00:46

Rewind.

00:47

What exactly is a food web?

00:48

Well, it's simple, really.

00:50

A food web is an image we can use to show different food chains, or in other words, [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

00:54

who eats what.

00:55

A typical food web might look a little something like this: [Spider crawling in its web]

00:58

First, we see some plants.

01:00

Plants are called “primary producers” because they make their own food using chemistry.

01:04

And no, not the kind you learn about in high school. [Plant next to a bunsen burner in a lab]

01:06

Unless you happen to sit next to a orchid in your chemistry class…then we stand corrected. [A flash explodes]

01:10

And to give credit where credit is due, they don't do it all on their own; they use energy

01:15

from the sun to help them out.

01:17

Next up come the animals that eat the plants. [Animal on top of the plants]

01:19

They're called “primary consumers” because they eat the “primary producers.”

01:23

Nice and simple so far, right?

01:25

Plants using the sun to make food for themselves, and then animals eating the plants for food. [Guinea pig in a cage]

01:30

Unfortunately, life isn't so simple.

01:32

Enter our secondary consumers.

01:34

These are animals that eat, you guessed it, our primary consumers. [Secondary consumers on top of the primary consumers]

01:39

And above them come the tertiary consumers.

01:41

All animals that eat other organisms are often referred to as simply “consumers.” [Dino eating a marshmallow]

01:46

Connect all those animals together based on who eats what, and we've got ourselves a food web!

01:51

And a very scary life for whoever is near the bottom of that pyramid. [Raccoon in a wood]

01:54

Maybe don't go outside too much, okay? [Raccoon runs away as the shadow of a bird flies overhead]

01:56

Food webs are useful tools to see how ecosystems are connected, as well as to remind us all that

02:01

living organisms get their energy from the food they eat or make – no matter how [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

02:05

they go about getting it. [Spider making a web]

02:06

Another great thing about food webs is that any time there's a human involved, we always

02:10

get to be on the very top of it.

02:12

For now, anyway.... [Shark jumps over the food pile and eats the guy on top]

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