In this activity, students build their own food web using images of organisms from the marine ecosystem. This activity can be done indoors on paper or outdoors on a tarmac surface using chalk.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- understand the difference between a food chain and a food web
- understand that food webs are made up of producers, consumers and decomposers
- build and revise their own food web to show the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem
- understand the potential impact of the removal or reduction of one species on the rest of the food web.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- introduction/ background notes
- what you need
- what to do
- discussion questions
- possible variations
- student worksheet
- trophic pyramid diagram
- tuna sandwich diagram (transfer of energy)
- organism cards (small)
- organism cards (large).
My kids have been making arrows to add to a poster of a foodweb and are then going to teach the lesson to another group within the class, they love the fact they are teaching others.
Year 5/6 teacher
Useful links
These two websites have more information about common student alternative conceptions related to food webs.
Science Continuum
www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/.../l4relationships.htm
Binghamton University
http://ecomisconceptions.binghamton.edu/foodwebs.htm
