Session 2

Print version of "Bay and Pond Food Webs": PDF • Word

Conduct this session in the schoolyard.

Gather students on a paved surface and have them wear their drawings from Session 1. Discuss the meanings of producer, consumer, and decomposer as they relate to organisms in a food web. Designate an area for each type, and direct students to classify their organisms as producer, consumer, or decomposer by moving to the designated area. Share the results by naming the organisms in each group.
Next, discuss the meanings of herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore. Direct the consumers to sort themselves into these smaller groups. Share the results by naming the organisms in each group.
Next, the class will illustrate the Bay food web. Give a piece of chalk to each student, and have the class spread out across the pavement. Draw a circle representing the sun. Tell students to circle the spot where they are standing and to write the name of their organism in the circle. Next, direct students to find the circles representing organisms that their own organism can eat. If a student cannot find what his or her organism eats, the student may draw a new circle to represent that organism and draw an arrow back to his or her own circle. (Plants will draw an arrow from the circle representing the sun.)
When students have finished illustrating the food web, have them return to their circles and find the organisms that eat theirs.
Draw a circle to represent a human. Ask for a show of hands to indicate which students think their organism might be eaten by a human; then draw arrows to connect those circles to the human circle.
Discuss the complexity of the Bay food web. Ask students what they think is happening to the web as a result of pollution, loss of underwater grasses, and over-fishing.

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