Food Chain

Designed By: Colette Dryden, Satchel Ford Elementary

1) CORE CURRICULUM OBJECTIVE(S): Describe and illustrate relationships among organisms through the use of food chains and food webs.  (3SLS-5)

GRADE LEVEL: Third        SUBJECT: Science

2) OVERVIEW: The students will role-play various organisms from a food chain to illustrate how a food chain works. In relay style, the students try to fill their cups (stomachs) and, in turn, fill a larger organism's larger cup (stomach).

3) FOCUS/ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S): The purpose of this class activity is to enable the children to visualize the importance of each organism in a food chain. They can better understand the connections all life has with other life. What connections do organisms have with each other?

4) TIME FRAME: One fifty minute class

5) RESOURCES/MATERIALS:

Materials:
one large bag of popcorn
2 large brown paper grocery bags
2 plastic popcorn buckets
2 large plastic cups
6 medium drink cups
8 paper bathroom cups
animal signs for each child
Make signs on yarn (based on a class of about 20)

These are for a typical SC fresh water pond habitat: 8 insect signs (4 per team) 6 minnow signs (3 per team) 2 blue gill signs (1 per team) 2 large mouth bass signs (1 per team) 2 Osprey signs (1 per team)

6) CULMINATING ASSESSMENT: Students will describe what they did and why in their science logs. They will also describe the relationship among the organisms. They will then illustrate and label another food chain in a different habitat of their choice, including the relationships among the organisms.

Food Chain Rubric Score Criteria

7) INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES: Ask students: Why are food chains important? (Accept reasonable responses.) What connections do the organisms in the food chain have with each other? Discuss.

Tell the class you're going to make a food chain simulation to answer these questions.

Divide the class into two groups of about 10 students each. For smaller or larger classes, change the number of insects and minnows. This works best outside.

Have students line up, relay style in two equal size teams.

Pass out the cups and bags. The insects each receive a bathroom cup. The minnows receive a drinking cup. Blue gills receive the large cups. The large mouth bass receives the plastic popcorn buckets. The Osprey each get a brown paper bag. Pass out signs.

The object of the game is to have each team work together to fill up the Osprey's bag.

Sprinkle the popped popcorn in piles in front of the 2 teams. The popcorn represents the plankton that lives in the pond. Don't worry about any leftover popcorn. The birds will clean it up!

Explain to the students that the popcorn is plankton. Tell them that only the insects can move to collect the popcorn in their cups. As a group, the insects rush into the popcorn area, fill their cups with popcorn, and return to their team. The insects will hand their cup to a member of the minnows who will transfer the popcorn from the insect's cup to their own cup. If popcorn falls to the ground, it must be picked up by an insect, placed in an insect's cup, and then transferred to a minnow's cup. Minnows may not pick up popcorn from the ground.

After the insect's popcorn has been transferred to a minnow's cup, the insect returns to the popcorn pile and repeats the procedure. As soon as the minnow's cup is full, the cup is passed down the line to the next order of consumers, bluegills. The blue gill receives the cup of popcorn from the minnows, dump that popcorn into their cup and return the empty cup to the minnow.

The blue gill in turn passes his cup to the large mouth bass. The large mouth bass passes the popcorn to the Osprey. The object of the game is to fill the Osprey's belly: the brown paper bag.

Gather students back together. Discuss results of simulation. How were the insects and fish connected? Why were they important to each other? What would happen if the Blue Gill fish died?

Have students record what they did in their science logs. They should illustrate the food chain they simulated.

Students will choose another food chain to illustrate. Post these in the hall to share with others.

HELPFUL HINTS:

It is not necessary that the smaller cups be completely full.

Dropped popcorn can only be retrieved by insects.

Organize the teams----fast runners=insects.

EXTENSIONS:

Engage the students in a discussion about the relay. Encourage the use of the terms consumers, predators, and prey.

Create a class mural of a food web of a certain habitat.

Discuss what would happen if the blue gills became extinct. What adaptations of the other organisms would have to take place? Why is this important?