Saturday, March 15, 2014

Food Web and Energy 5th

How do you demonstrate food webs and the interconnected relationships between organisms?  Each student pretends to be a producer, consumer, or decomposer.  I gave each student a card with one listed.


Next, act out a story!  The energy travels to the Earth from the sun as light and heat.  Pose questions about what consumes the sunlight, what consumes plants, and what consumes animals.  As students volunteer their organism to be a part of the food web, pass a ball of yarn around to show how interconnected these relationships can be.  Continue the same ball of yarn.  I allow one student to be the sun.


Last, ask one organism to step back and out of the circle, pulling the string with them.  Discuss why that organism pulled others with it as it moved.  I link this to how populations of animals can grow or shrink or even become extinct.  I allow one organism to drop their strings, like extinction, and describe how that effects the other beings that share the same habitat.  Or, have the sun pull the string and have anyone effected raise their hand.  It's a great visual to help understand the concept!

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