Garrett Maternick & Bri Markowitz

4/22/2015
Objectives:
1.) SWBAT collaborate with their peers in order to identify their role in the food chain.
2.) SWBAT collaboratively apply the concepts they learn from the video and PowerPoint in
order to construct their own food web.
3.) SWABT recognize connections between animals in order to organize their placement on
the food web.
Warmup:
Explore: Feeding patterns

Students will be broken into small groups of 3-4.

Each group is given a blank food web on poster board with cutout images of different
plants and animals. The cutout images will be either glued or taped to the correct blank
spaces on the food web given. See attached handouts for food web and cut out images.
Collaborating with group members, students will place the given images into the correct
spaces on the blank food web. Students should work together to place images and ensure
that all group members agree.
If group members do not collaborate well together, students can be assigned roles. For
example, one student designated group leader, one student designated recorder, one
student designated mediator.
Differentiation: For students requiring additional support, the vocabulary terms: Primary
consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, and producer, could be provided and
explained before the activity.
Explain: Feeding patterns

Students will make connections between the animals on different levels on the food web
using a handout. See attached worksheet.
Differentiation: For students with difficulty with visualizing and organization, the
animals on each level of the food web could be color coated to enhance which animals are in similar trophic levels.
Students will work in their groups to list any connections they see between animals on
their food web. Students are to break up their food web into 4 groups and list the plants
and animals of each group.
Once all groups have completed their worksheet, groups will come to the board and
record which animals they put in each group. When all groups have recorded their

observations, the class will discuss which groups had similar categories and which were
different. What is the best grouping of animals presented? Why are those animals in that
grouping similar?
Students will recognize that the plants at the bottom of the food web are producers (make
their own food), and the animals on the next levels are consumers (primary, secondary,
tertiary, etc). Students will use these newly discovered terms in the next Explore activity.
Technology Connection: lf the classroom has access to Smart Board of the software,
Active Inspire; groups can present their categories through the software to be displayed to
the class. Using the Smart Board can allow students to physically pick up the names of
plants or animals and transfer them from category to category as they discuss where each
belong.
During the class discussion it is important for the teacher to have his/her students
hypothesize and make predictions. One example of this could be to have students predict
the ratio of one group of plants/animals in a specific category compared to another and
explain why. (More plants/animals in the producer category, and less animals as the food
web gets higher) Students should ask themselves where the plants/animals at the bottom
of the food web get their food/energy. This conversation will take students to the next
Explore activity.
Explore: Energy Flow in Ecosystems

Students will then get back into their groups and receive another blank poster board that
contains a blank trophic level/energy pyramid. After the students receive their materials,
the teacher will explain the nature of the trophic pyramid. Students will be told the first
two laws of thermodynamics (Energy cannot be created nor destroyed and energy cannot
be transferred fully; some will be wasted as heat). Using the information from the teacher
along with the blank pyramid, students will receive cutout vocabulary words including:
the Sun, producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers.
(These terms will be familiar to students due to the previous handout activity) The sun is
to be placed at the bottom of the blank pyramid to show the energy to the producers.
Leave it up to the students to decide where they believe the sun should go.
Students will work together to place each label in the correct position on the pyramid.
Once a group believes they have their pyramid is correct, they will get it checked by the
teacher. After completed, the group will receive cutouts including: 100,000 kCal, 10,000
kCal, 1,000kCal, 100 kCal, 10 kCal.
Students will place the energy available at each level on their pyramid with the
vocabulary words.
Ask students in their groups to explain why they put the energy cut outs in their chosen
places.

Explain: Energy Flow in Ecosystems

The teacher will draw an empty pyramid on the chalkboard. When all students have their
reasoning for the energy cutout placements, students from each group will come to the
board and write in where they put each kCal cutout.
Technology Connection: Classrooms with access to a Smart Board and/or the software
Active Inspire can again show this blank pyramid on the screen for students to
manipulate terms.
Groups will take turns explaining to the class why they chose different places for each
cutout.
Have a class discussion that encourages students to ask questions about where each group
placed their terms. During the class discussion, be sure to have the completed food web
as a reference. If all groups agree, are they correct? Why does it make sense for the larger
number be at the bottom of the pyramid compared to the smallest number? Animals on
each level get their energy from the level below it and the available energy at each level
decreases, as it gets higher.
Provide students with a handout to copy down the class-constructed pyramid with the
correct terms in the correct places.
Differentiation: If students are proficient in percent, ratios, and fractions, encourage
students to find the percent of energy available at each level. How much does the energy
available decrease by?