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Energy from the Sun Training Center

Ari Raider's Training Materials · Wild Earth Expedition · Training Center 4 of 6

Energy from the Sun

The Solar Forge's light shaft is packed shut, and everything below is going pale — because everything below runs on sunlight, one way or another. Trace the energy back and the shaft opens.

What you're training for

At the Solar Forge, the column of light is blocked. It drops back in for whoever can trace the energy path in order, starting at the Sun. Train here first; prove it in the simulation.

The science

  • Almost all the energy in living things starts at the Sun.
  • Plants catch sunlight and make their own food — they're the only link in the chain that can.
  • Animals get energy by eating — the rabbit eats the plant, the fox eats the rabbit. Every bite passes sunlight along.
  • Follow any food backward — pizza, fox, or fern — and the trail always ends at the same place: the Sun.

Teach it today — no prep

The sunlight trace. Pick any lunch item and trace it backward as a class: cheese ← cow ← grass ← Sun. Do three foods, then reverse into the chain game: Sun tags plant, plant tags rabbit, rabbit tags fox — energy literally passed hand to hand across the room. Ask what happens to the whole line if the Sun sits down.

Trained and ready? Prove it at Stop 4 — the Solar Forge. Free, no logins, progress saved on the device.

Enter the Realm at Stop 4

Resources in this training center

Worksheets, reading passages, flashcards and printables for this lesson are being added — new resources land here first. Get one email a month when they do, or browse the whole free library.

The hands-on half: the Wild Earth Expedition Adventure Kit puts six real specimens, six Digs, six Gemlings and the Realm map in your students' hands — $19.99, or $15 a student for classrooms.

More Wild Earth Expedition training

Parts of a Plant · Plants & Erosion · Clean Water · Energy from the Sun · Renewable Energy · Protecting Habitats · Enter the Adventure →

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