Prospect Park Zoo:High
School
Food Web
Grade Level
: 9th
Objectives:
1. Students will learn about producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers,
tertiary consumers and decomposers.
2. Students will learn about producers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.
3. Students will learn about the flow of energy from the sun, up through food
chains and across food webs.
Background
information:
Nearly all the activities of life are powered by the energy of sunlight. Each
time this energy is used, some of it is lost as heat. But while solar energy
continuously bombards the Earth and is continuously lost as heat, nutrients
remain. They may change in form and distribution but they do not leave the
world of ecosystem, and are continuously recycled.
Materials needed: Pen, paper
Procedure:
1. Ask the students to fill out the pyramid with given choices:
· secondary consumer
· decomposer
· primary consumer
· producer
· tertiary consumer
2. Designate the proper energy level from the list above for each organism
below:
· Earthworm
· Mouse
· Bean
· Snake
· Wolf
· Hawk
Questions:
1. Which level has the least amount of available energy? Why?
2. Which level has the most organisms? Why?
3. Give two examples of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.
Closure:
Why is it necessary to have members of each energy level in an ecosystem?
What happens if there are more herbivores than producers?
MSTEP
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