5-PS3-1: Energy in Food Comes from the Sun
Also called NGSS 5-PS3-1 · Topic: Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems · Physical Science
The Official Wording
Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, and motion and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.
Clarification statement: Examples of models could include diagrams, and flow charts.
NGSS Lead States, 2013 · Read it on nextgenscience.org · checked October 15, 2026
What 5-PS3-1 Means in Plain English
Fifth graders use diagrams and flow charts to trace the energy in food back to its start. Plants capture energy from sunlight to make food, animals eat plants or other animals, and the energy powers growth, repair, movement, and keeping warm.
Students do not explain the chemistry of photosynthesis. They build on 4-PS3-2, where energy moves from place to place, and head toward MS-LS1-6 and MS-LS2-3, which trace matter and energy through plants and ecosystems.
5-PS3-1 I Can Statements
- I can trace the energy in my food back to the sun.
- I can draw a flow chart from sunlight to an animal.
- I can name ways animals use the energy from food.
5-PS3-1 Worked Example
A flow-chart activity that traces one cheese sandwich lunch back to sunlight.
Where did the energy in a cheese sandwich first come from?
Set It Up: Index cards, markers, tape, and a long sheet of butcher paper for each group.
- Write each part of the sandwich on its own card.Bread card, cheese card
- Ask what each part was made from and add that card with an arrow pointing to the food.Wheat → bread, milk → cheese
- Keep asking until every chain reaches a plant.Grass → cow → milk
- Ask where each plant got the energy it stored.Sun → wheat, sun → grass
- Add a last card showing what the eater does with the energy.Grow, heal, move, stay warm
Every chain on the chart started with the sun, even the cheese that came from an animal.
Why it works: Plants store energy from sunlight in the food they make, and that energy passes along to every animal that eats them or eats something that did.
Common Mistakes with 5-PS3-1
Thinking animal foods skip the sun
“A hamburger comes from a cow, not a plant, so no sun.”
Try this: Ask what the cow ate. Grass grew using sunlight, so the energy in beef started as sunlight too.
Drawing arrows backward
An arrow from the cow pointing to the grass
Try this: Arrows show where the energy goes. Point them from the food to the eater, starting at the sun.
Leaving the sun off the chart
A food chain that starts with grass
Try this: Grass is the first living link, but its energy came from sunlight. Add the sun as the first box in every chain.
Where 5-PS3-1 Fits
Practice 5-PS3-1
Quick Check
- A fox eats a rabbit that ate clover. Where did the fox's energy start?
- Name two things an animal uses food energy for.
- Why does every food chain begin with a plant or other producer?