Tracing Energy in a Backyard Raspberry Patch

A Closer Look at Raspberry Visitors

A fifth-grade class visited a raspberry patch in their teacher's backyard. The students wondered how food could connect the animals they saw to the sun. They planned an observation investigation, not an experiment that changed how much sunlight the plants received. Their teacher asked them to collect feeding evidence before building models.

Step 1: The class marked two watching spots beside the same patch: one near leafy stems and one near ripe fruit. Step 2: On three mornings, students watched each spot for ten minutes. They changed which part of the patch they watched. They kept the patch, watching time, and recording method the same. They stayed on the path and did not handle the insects or feed the birds.

Step 3: Students recorded the animal, what it was feeding on, and the number of feeding sightings. A sighting meant seeing an animal feeding during a watch. An animal seen on another morning could be counted again. The teacher helped identify the insects and explained that aphids use mouthparts to take sap from plants. Students did not count an animal as feeding just because it was nearby.

Step 4: The class combined its records. Near the leafy stems, students recorded six sightings of aphids taking raspberry plant sap and two sightings of lady beetles eating aphids. Near the ripe fruit, they recorded three sightings of robins eating raspberries. These counts described feeding sightings, not amounts of energy. The class did not measure sunlight or the energy in food.

Science notes: Green plants capture energy from sunlight and use it to make food. Some of that energy is stored in plant parts, including fruit and sap. Animals get energy by eating plants or other animals. They use food energy for movement, growth, and keeping their bodies working. In the class models, an arrow points from an energy source to the living thing receiving that energy. A plant card can stand for the whole plant, including its sap and fruit.