|
Title: The Basis of Life (Food Webs, Producers, Consumers) Grade Level(s): 6-8 Introduction: The circle of life has been made popular by children’s movies and enables students to have some background when discussing topics such as food chains. Ocean food chains are engaging as students tend to find underwater creatures mysterious. Microscopic organisms floating in the water are called plankton, and they comprise the beginning of the food chain. Plankton can be further classified as phytoplankton (plants) and zooplankton (animals). Phytoplankton can be thought of as the “garden of the sea” as they serve the same purpose as plants do on land. They store energy from the sunlight and produce food for other creatures. Living things that create their own food are called producers. Animals that eat the producers are called consumers. Zooplankton feed on the phytoplankton and are thus called first order consumers. Small fish would then eat the zooplankton and they would then become second order consumers. A larger fish would then be the third order consumer and the fourth order consumer would then eat it. This is an example of an ocean food chain. Many whales however, are large sea creatures that feed directly on plankton. This creates another strand to our food chain which now becomes a food web. Additionally, decomposers, who consume dead, organic matter and convert it to inorganic nutrients, help make soil fertile and healthy for organisms to grow. Learner Objectives:
Florida Sunshine State Standards : Math: MA.A.3.3.2. / Science: SC.G.2.3.3. Competency Based Curriculum: Math : M/J-1 - II-7-A, M/J-3 - I-21-C; Science: M/J-3 - V-2-A Materials:
Activity Procedures:
Student Assessment: Observe presentations and check concept map. Activity Extensions: Simulate the effect of pollutants on a specific species and thus on an entire food web. Give students two buckets of either lake or ocean water. Label one bucket “experimental” and the other “control”. Place them in the sun. Put one or two drops of either detergent or fertilizer into the experimental bucket daily. Observe and record the temperature and turbidity each day. Continue until the water is green and turbid. Students should explain why the water is green and the general differences between the two buckets of water. Have students apply findings to real-life situations where pollution is driving entire food webs into extinction. Home Learning Activity: If it takes ten pounds of producer for a first order consumer to gain one pound and ten pounds of the first order consumer for the second order consumer to gain one pound, how many pounds of the producer would a large fish (fourth order consumer) need to consume to gain one pound?
Vocabulary: plankton, phytoplankton, zooplankton, producers, consumers References/Related Links:
|
|
