Food Chains and Food Webs
As a hands on demonstration of how changes in food webs can affect several other organisms, students can be each assigned a specific organism from a food web. From there organisms are connected (bunny eats grass, wolf eats bunny, worms decompose wolf). Continue this process until all of the students are connected. Next, add an impact like a drought, or deforestation. Have the person attached to that impact tug on their string. From there every consecutive student that feels a tug will also tug on their string. At the end have students hold up their hands if they felt a tug.
Some questions that can be asked of the students after the activity include:
1. When there was a drought, and the water person pulled on their string, how many other people felt it? Was this surprising?
2. Droughts are common occurrences throughout the world. Research a large drought that has occurred in the last 10 years and provide evidence of how the ecosystem recovered from the drought.
Some questions that can be asked of the students after the activity include:
1. When there was a drought, and the water person pulled on their string, how many other people felt it? Was this surprising?
2. Droughts are common occurrences throughout the world. Research a large drought that has occurred in the last 10 years and provide evidence of how the ecosystem recovered from the drought.
Owl Pellets
To better understand food chains, students can dissect owl pellets. In my class, students were broken into pairs, and given one pellet to dissect. In addition, students were asked to complete a small worksheet on the activity. As you introduce the activity, you can also explain how an owl has adapted to better suit its environment.
The first link is for an excellent website that sells the owl pellets very inexpensively. I was able to purchase a bargain owl pellets bag which was enough for 60 students. The following links are for the owl pellet activities.
http://www.discountowlpellets.com/store/category/bags-of-pellets
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t779t7a5innpldz/Owl%20Pellets%20-%20Worksheet%20and%20Info.docx?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h9togvgenk7fjwa/Owl%20adaptations.notebook?dl=0
The first link is for an excellent website that sells the owl pellets very inexpensively. I was able to purchase a bargain owl pellets bag which was enough for 60 students. The following links are for the owl pellet activities.
http://www.discountowlpellets.com/store/category/bags-of-pellets
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t779t7a5innpldz/Owl%20Pellets%20-%20Worksheet%20and%20Info.docx?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h9togvgenk7fjwa/Owl%20adaptations.notebook?dl=0
Predator Prey
If you have a spare day or two, a game of predator prey is an excellent way to reinforce student learning and understanding about ecosystems and food webs. Below is a notebook presentation with some basic rules, as well as two webpages that outline the game. The game can be altered quite easily to fit you specific classroom requirements.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsimupjsfqwxyy0/Predator%20Prey%20Rules%202.notebook?dl=0
http://dragon.sleepdeprived.ca/games/wide_games/wide_games_15.htm
https://www.bradwoods.org/pdf/ee_curriculum_2012/Predator_Prey_11.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsimupjsfqwxyy0/Predator%20Prey%20Rules%202.notebook?dl=0
http://dragon.sleepdeprived.ca/games/wide_games/wide_games_15.htm
https://www.bradwoods.org/pdf/ee_curriculum_2012/Predator_Prey_11.pdf