Objective: Students will be able to distinguish between producers, consumers, and decomposers and how they shape our ecosystem.
NGSS Standard
5-LS2-1 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics Develop a model to describethe movement of matter amongplants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
Students will be asked to text in a response to the question "What do you think of when you hear the term "Ecosystem"?"
Students will watch a 3 minute long video on Ecosystems that will cover main vocabulary.
Students will be given definitions for the vocabulary.
Explore/Explain Materials needed:
Food Web worksheet
Vocabulary worksheet
Scissors & glue sticks
Large ball of yarn
Labels of each organism from food web worksheet
First, students will be put into groups of three and each will be given a food web worksheet to complete. (Group sizes can vary depending on the number of students)
Working together, students will cut and paste different producers, consumers, and decomposers on the food web worksheet to create 5 different food chains, all starting at the sun's energy.
Students will be given a vocabulary worksheet as a guide for the food web worksheet and for future reference.
Once completed, the class will go over the different food chains they found on the worksheet and, as a class, discuss any questions or thoughts they may have.
Each student will then be given a label to represent an organism from the food web (one person will also represent the sun).
The whole class will then stand up in a large circle and model how energy goes from one organism to another with the ball of yarn. Specific directions for the activity are below.
The class will then discuss how energy flows through the ecosystem and the impact of their role in the ecosystem.
Human Web Activity
1. Students gather around the classroom, creating a large circle in no specific arrangement. However, the student who is labeled as the “Sun” will be standing in the middle.
2. The Sun will start out by holding the string of yarn tightly and look around the room and ask themselves, “Who can use my energy?”
3. They will then toss the yarn to the corresponding person (organism). When that person catches the yarn, they will then pass the yarn to someone that can use their energy.
4. The ball of yarn should then be returned to the sun and repeated until every student is part of the web.
Once everyone is part of the web, ask certain students to tug on the string they are holding. Then ask the students who feel the tug to begin tugging on their string. Once all the students begin to feel their string being pulled, discuss the effects of one small organism dying out in an ecosystem.
Source: www.brainpop.com “Food Chains and Food Webs Lesson Plan: Understanding Energy Flow." Brain Pop Educators.
Elaborate Materials needed:
Access to outdoors
Phones, notebook, etc. to record data
Students will get back into their groups from the beginning of the lesson and go outside.
Each group will be responsible for finding one producer, one consumer, and one decomposer to make a food chain. They can record this data in their notes or by taking pictures.
Students will then go back inside and discuss their findings with the class.
If you cannot find one for each category, try to think of one on your own that would be in your environment!
Evaluate Materials needed:
Assessment worksheet
Students will be given a worksheet to work on individually as their exit ticket. This worksheet will consist of a few questions that not only focus on the ecosystem lesson, but allow them to think outside the box as well.