Life in the Food Chain - Grade 7 ELA Practice Test Scoring Guide

Sep 29, 2026

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Grade 7 ELA practice materials centered on “Life in the Food Chain,” explaining how energy moves through producers and consumers in food chains. The text covers photosynthesis, the role of green plants and algae, and how herbivores and carnivores form linked energy pathways. It also presents a focused case study on Isle Royale, describing predator-prey dynamics among wolves, moose, and balsam fir trees, including boom-and-bust population cycles.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages36

Reading Time1 h 31 min

AccessFree to download

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: Practice Test Scoring Guide

Grade 7

Life in the Food Chain

What Do You Have in Common with Corn, Mushrooms, Cows, and Grass?

Living Links

Isle Royale: Predators, Prey, and Producers

Ups and Downs

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: Practice Test Scoring Guide Grade 7 Published August 26, 2013 Prepared by the American Institutes for Research® © Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, 2013 Descriptions of the operation of the Test Delivery System, Test Information Distribution Engine, and related systems are property of the American Institutes for Research® (AIR) and are used with permission of AIR. LIFE in the Food Chain What Do You Have in Common with Corn, Mushrooms, Cows, and Grass? by Ellen R. Braaf Like all living things, you need energy. The energy you use to live everyday travels from one living thing to another, in a chain that starts with the sun. The energy in all your food comes from the sun, 93 million miles away. How did the sun's energy end up in the things you eat? You can thank green plants. They contain chlorophyll--a substance that traps the energy in sunlight. This energy then helps plants change water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air into oxygen and carbohydrates that power their cells. This process is called photosynthesis. Most plants make more food than they need. They store the extra in their roots, leaves, stems, flowers, fruit, and seeds. So, when you eat carrots, spinach, celery, cauliflower, bananas, or walnuts, some of the energy stored in plants passes on to you. Certain bacteria also make their own food. So do most algae. Found just about everywhere on Earth--in lakes, streams, oceans, deserts, soil, boiling hot springs, snow, and ice--algae range from 200-foot-long kelp to tiny ocean plants called phytoplankton. Living things that make their own food are called producers. All others--including humans--are consumers. They need to eat other living things to survive. Living Links Food chains link producers and consumers together. When scientists talk about food chains, they're not talking about the E-Z Burger restaurant chain. They mean the paths along which energy and nutrients pass from one living thing to another in our "eat-or-be-eaten" world. Food chains everywhere--in grasslands and deserts, oceans and tropical rainforests--begin with the producers. They are the first link. The consumers come next, starting with the plant eaters, or herbivores, the vegetarians of the animal kingdom. Elephants grazing on grass, caterpillars munching leaves, and pandas chomping bamboo get energy directly from producers. So do the shrimplike krill that dine on one-celled plants in the ocean. Carnivores, who consume other animals, come next. These predators get energy from plants indirectly. When an owl eats a mouse that nibbled seeds, it tops a three-link chain. But if its prey is a snake that ate a mouse that nibbled seeds, the snake becomes the third link, and the owl, the fourth. Because all organisms use the energy they get from food to live, grow, and reproduce, only small amounts remain to pass between the living links in a food chain. That's why most chains are short--usually about two to five links--and why it takes a lot of producers at the bottom of a food chain to support a few supercarnivores at the top. It's also why life on Earth depends on a constant supply of sunlight. Isle Royale: Predators, Prey, and Producers On Isle Royale--a small, remote island in Lake Superior--wolves, moose, and balsam fir trees are bound together in a three-link food chain. Moose came to the island around 1900. These long-legged herbivores probably swam 15 miles to the island from Canada. There they found moose heaven--lots of plants and no large predators. As a result, they thrived, and their numbers grew. Many lived a long time for moose, about 17 years. In summer, moose eat a variety of ferns, shrubs, wildflowers, leaves, and water plants. An 800-pound moose can scarf down 40 pounds of vegetation a day, packing on an extra 200 pounds in just a couple of months. That's like an 80-pound kid gaining 20 pounds over summer vacation by eating 4 pounds of

FAQs

What is the main idea of “Life in the Food Chain”?

Energy is transferred through food chains from producers to consumers. The text explains how sunlight-derived energy enters living things and moves along connected links.

How do producers and consumers differ in a food chain?

Producers make their own food, such as plants using photosynthesis and algae. Consumers must eat other living things to survive.

What causes the population changes on Isle Royale?

Changes in moose and their food supply affect tree health and moose numbers. Predator-prey dynamics then create boom-and-bust cycles between wolves and moose.

Sep 29, 2026

Upload by asba