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Everything you need to teach food chains

10/2/2016

1 Comment

 
Everything you need to teach food chains
Is food chains up next in your curriculum? Most students learn food chains in the elementary grades, so how do you make it interesting and rigorous at the secondary level? Here are some great options:
Create your own food chain and web activity
Food web cards from Science Lessons That Rock
Take the guessing out of creating food chains and webs! Students will create a food chain and web with 36 given organism cards. Each card has an organism, picture, what it eats, and what it gets eaten by. No more "Miss, what does a skunk eat?" Snag this lesson HERE.
Food chain interactive website
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zbnnb9q/articles/z93vdxs
In this interactive from the BBC, students go through 3 levels and identify food chains within a Savannah ecosystem.
Food chain video clip
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZOvqYypOuo
This is a great youtube video on food chains. It shows a food chain in the everglades, and reviews important vocabulary like herbivore, carnivore, producer, and consumer.
Skull inquiry lab from science lessons that rock
This skull lab is always a hit! I take out the skulls before introducing vocabulary words like herbivore, carnivore, nocturnal, or diurnal. Students will analyze the skulls and make inferences about how the animal lived. They have a really fun time trying to figure out which animals they are too! Don't have skulls handy? Don't worry! I have a great paper version of this lab in my teachers pay teachers store. Check it out here.
Trophic level lab from science lessons that rock
Last but not least is a lesson that demonstrates why it is important that trophic levels remain in balance. In this activity, students play the role of grass (producer), rabbit (primary consumer), or a coyote (secondary consumer). Throughout the 5 rounds, students will go around the room and pair up with another student. If they find a prey they get to eat it. If they find another organism of the same species, they reproduce. If they don't eat or get eaten that round, they are out. Students will quickly learn that there needs to be few secondary consumers and a lot of producers for a community to be sustainable. Check it out in my teachers pay teachers store here.

When you make ecology hands on and interactive, students will have a blast. What other activities do you do with your students when teaching food chains? Leave ideas in the comments below!
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1 Comment
Maria Jaceque link
4/2/2017 10:20:13 pm

In summary the food chain can be interpreted as a meal-consuming travel between living things on earth. Plants eaten by animals, and these animals are eaten by other animals, and these animals will also be eaten by another animal.

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    Becca 
    The face behind Science Lessons That Rock

    I'm a teacher, blogger, and curriculum writer.
    I've been teaching science for 12 years at both the middle and high school levels.

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