Make sure you have understood everything in this section (Lessons A4, A5, and A6).
Use the Self-Check below, and the Self-Check & Lesson Review Tips to guide your learning.
This is also a good time to visit your Section 2 Checklist to make sure you have completed all the recommended learning activities.

Unit A Section 2 Self-Check

Instructions


Complete the following 6 steps. Don't skip steps – if you do them in order, you will confirm your understanding of this section and create a study bank for the future.

  1. DOWNLOAD the self-check quiz by clicking here.

  2. ANSWER all the questions on the downloaded quiz in the spaces provided. Think carefully before typing your answers. Review the lessons of this section if you need to. Save your quiz when you are done.

  3. COMPARE your answers with the suggested "Self-Check Quiz Answers" below. WAIT! You didn't skip step 2, did you? It's very important to carefully write out your own answers before checking the suggested answers.

  4. REVISE your quiz answers if you need to. If you answered all the questions correctly, you can skip this step. Revise means to change, fix, and add extra notes if you need to. This quiz is NOT FOR MARKS, so it is perfectly OK to correct any mistakes you made. This will make your self-check quiz an excellent study tool you can use later.

  5. SAVE your quiz to a folder on your computer, or to your Private Files. That way you will know where it is for later studying.

  6. CHECK with your teacher if you need to. If after completing all these steps you are still not sure about the questions or your answers, you should ask for more feedback from your teacher. To do this, post in the Course Questions Forum, or send your teacher an email. In either case, attach your completed quiz and ask; "Can you look at this quiz and give me some feedback please?" They will be happy to help you!

Self-Check Time!

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Self-Check Quiz Answers

Click each of the suggested answers below, and carefully compare your answers to the suggested answers.

If you have not done the quiz yet – STOP – and go back to step 1 above. Do not look at the answers without first trying the questions.

This food chain, similar to all food chains, is powered by the Sun. Grain and seed-producing plants absorb the Sun’s energy. Mice obtain energy from the seeds and grains of the plants. Cats obtain energy from eating mice. Energy flows in one direction from the Sun to plants to mice to cats, and it is used up along the way.
Here is how the food web appears:


The grain plant is the only producer in this food web, so it fits in the bottom level. The worm, bird, and mouse are all primary consumers. The bird and mouse eat seeds. The worm consumes any dead plant material. By consuming dead plants, it is also a primary consumer. The owl, bird, and cat are secondary consumers because they eat primary consumers. The cat eats both mice and birds. The owl eats mice. The bird eats worms. The cat is also a higher level consumer because it eats birds. In this food web, birds can be secondary and primary consumers, depending on what they eat. Cats can be secondary and higher level consumers, depending on what they eat (and what their prey eats).

Use the food web for reference:

Carbon enters the food web at the grain plant. The plant absorbs carbon dioxide from the air to make carbohydrates. The bird and mouse eat the carbohydrates in the seeds, so they absorb carbon that way. The cat, bird, and owl absorb carbon from the mouse, worm, and bird, respectively. The worm absorbs carbon when it consumes dead material from the grain plant. All the animals exhale carbon dioxide when they breathe, so the grain plant can absorb carbon from them. When each animal dies and decomposes, its body releases carbon dioxide into the air and soil. The plant can use that as well.
Many decomposers, such as soil bacteria, obtain energy from all levels of an energy pyramid. They obtain energy when they consume dead producers and consumers.