teaching resource

What Would Happen? Food Chain Prediction Activity

Updated: 22 Jan 2026

Explore how changes in the environment can affect food chains with an interactive Food Chain Prediction Activity.

Editable: PowerPoint, Google Slides
Pages: 1 Page
Years: 4 - 6

Curriculum

ST2-1WS-S

Questions, plans and conducts scientific investigations, collects and summarises data and communicates using scientific representations
ST3-4LW-S

Examines how the environment affects the growth, survival and adaptation of living things
ST3-4LW-S

Examines how the environment affects the growth, survival and adaptation of living things

VC2S4I01

With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can be investigated scientifically and predict what might happen based on prior knowledge
VC2S6U01

The growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of their environment
VC2S6I01

With guidance, pose questions to clarify practical problems or inform a scientific investigation, and predict what the findings of an investigation might be based on previous experiences or general rules
VC2S4U03

Consumers, producers and decomposers have different roles and interactions within a habitat; food chains can be used to represent feeding relationships <ul> <li>describing how animals, including humans, obtain their food from plants and other animals</li> <li>observing living things in a local habitat and categorising them as producers, consumers or decomposers</li> <li>researching the different types of decomposers and the importance of these within a habitat</li> <li>representing feeding relationships of producers and consumers as a food chain and comparing food chains across different habitats</li> <li>investigating the impact of introduced predators such as foxes on small mammal species in Australia</li> <li>researching how the removal of a food source from within a habitat, such as through an insect or rodent infestation, affects other living things within that habitat</li> </ul>

teaching resource

What Would Happen? Food Chain Prediction Activity

Updated: 22 Jan 2026

Explore how changes in the environment can affect food chains with an interactive Food Chain Prediction Activity.

Editable: PowerPoint, Google Slides
Pages: 1 Page
Years: 4 - 6

Explore how changes in the environment can affect food chains with an interactive Food Chain Prediction Activity.

Exploring Food Chains Prediction Activity

Get students thinking like ecologists as they explore how changes in the environment affect food chains and ecosystems. This interactive science inquiry activity challenges students to analyse food chain relationships and make evidence-based predictions about what might happen when a habitat changes.

Predict How Environmental Changes Affect Food Chains

In this interactive resource, students will experience 24 habitat and food chain picture slide prompts, each featuring:

A detailed image of a specific habitat
A list of plants and animals that form a food chain
A guiding prediction question such as:
- What would happen if this organism disappeared from the habitat?
- What might happen if a new predator moved into the ecosystem?

Using the pictures and food chain relationships shown, students must place the animals in order based on the flow of energy, predict the outcome of a given environmental factor, explain their thinking, and consider predator and prey relationships within an ecosystem.

This resource also includes:

Open-ended prediction prompts to support discussion or written response
A double-sided student recording sheet with plenty of space for students to explain predictions, draw connections, and justify their reasoning

Download Your Interactive Food Chain Activity

Ready to download your new Food Chain Activity? It’s easy! To get started, click the dropdown arrow on the download button and choose between the editable Slides or PowerPoint Version.

We have also included the printable recording sheet in a separate PDF file.

This resource was created by Kaylyn Chupp, a teacher and Teach Starter Collaborator

More Food Chain and Science Inquiry Activities

Looking to extend student learning? Explore more printable and interactive science resources that focus on predictions, cause-and-effect relationships, and food chains. Make sure you check these out before you go!

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Imbalance in Food Chains – Teaching Presentation

Explore how different factors can cause a break in a food chain and may affect an ecosystem with this 16-slide teaching presentation.

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Food Chain Imbalance – Worksheet

Predict how changes in a food chain affect species in an ecosystem with this worksheet.

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What Would Happen If...? Environmental Impact Task Cards

Predict and identify the effects of environmental change on plants and animals with a set of printable science task cards.

Curriculum

ST2-1WS-S

Questions, plans and conducts scientific investigations, collects and summarises data and communicates using scientific representations
ST3-4LW-S

Examines how the environment affects the growth, survival and adaptation of living things
ST3-4LW-S

Examines how the environment affects the growth, survival and adaptation of living things

VC2S4I01

With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can be investigated scientifically and predict what might happen based on prior knowledge
VC2S6U01

The growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of their environment
VC2S6I01

With guidance, pose questions to clarify practical problems or inform a scientific investigation, and predict what the findings of an investigation might be based on previous experiences or general rules
VC2S4U03

Consumers, producers and decomposers have different roles and interactions within a habitat; food chains can be used to represent feeding relationships <ul> <li>describing how animals, including humans, obtain their food from plants and other animals</li> <li>observing living things in a local habitat and categorising them as producers, consumers or decomposers</li> <li>researching the different types of decomposers and the importance of these within a habitat</li> <li>representing feeding relationships of producers and consumers as a food chain and comparing food chains across different habitats</li> <li>investigating the impact of introduced predators such as foxes on small mammal species in Australia</li> <li>researching how the removal of a food source from within a habitat, such as through an insect or rodent infestation, affects other living things within that habitat</li> </ul>

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