Detecting Schoolyard Food Chains
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Provided by: Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education|Published on: August 14, 2023
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
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Synopsis
- In this lesson, students act as detectives to determine what food chains exist in their backyards or schoolyards.
- Students will have a designated area to study, research the food chains they find, and present their findings to the class.
Subjects: Science, English Language Arts
Authors: Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point K-12 Energy Education Program
Region: North America, USA - Midwest, United States, Wisconsin
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This activity involves each student group looking at their own area, which can provide some variety in student responses.
- There are many great opportunities for extension listed in this lesson.
Prerequisites
- The Energy Learning Log, referenced in the lesson is not located in this lesson document. However, typing "Keep Know The Flow" in a search engine (or using this link) should take you to the main guide for these lessons, which will detail some of the bolded items mentioned in this lesson.
- Students should understand that plants get their energy from the sun and that many animals get their energy from eating plants.
- Students should know the expectations of working outside and with a partner.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Students in math classes can keep data on how many organisms they see in their designated area daily, then create a graph to show patterns and trends.
- Students in language arts classes can choose one organism from their food chain to write an informative report about.
- Students can discuss what may happen in a food chain with the effects of climate change. For example, what might happen in a food chain where rising temperatures lead to less of a certain type of insect that is not equipped to handle hotter temperatures? What might happen if insects that live in hotter temperatures migrate to areas that have increasing temperatures and start to eat a lot of the plants?
- This lesson partners well with those in the Discovering Energy in Nature collection to investigate energy concepts in nature - each lesson includes a link to climate change and maps from the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.
This resource from Wisconsin K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP) tasks students with observing food chains in their schoolyard. Students are asked to serve as “Food Chain Detectives” as they use a stretched out coat hanger as their study area and investigate what food chains they can see within it. This resource uses a fun activity to teach about the multiple links of the food chain, and care is taken to make sure that students understand the importance of the sun in the food chain. An extension activity uses composting to help students understand the role of decomposers in the food chain. This resource features clear instructions, a fun and educational activity and is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
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