Explain and illustrate the roles of and relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in the process of energy transfer in a food web.
| Course Number1111 |
Course Title222 |
| 2002070: | M/J Comprehensive Science 2 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current)) |
| 2002080: | M/J Comprehensive Science 2, Advanced (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current)) |
| 2000010: | M/J Life Science (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current)) |
| 2000020: | M/J Life Science, Advanced (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current)) |
| 7820016: | Access M/J Comprehensive Science 2 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2023, 2023 and beyond (current)) |
| 2002085: | M/J Comprehensive Science 2 Accelerated Honors (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current)) |
| 7920030: | Fundamental Integrated Science 1 (Specifically in versions: 2013 - 2015, 2015 - 2017 (course terminated)) |
| 7920035: | Fundamental Integrated Science 2 (Specifically in versions: 2013 - 2015, 2015 - 2017 (course terminated)) |
| 2002200: | M/J STEM Environmental Science (Specifically in versions: 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current)) |
| 2001100: | M/J Coastal Science 1 (Specifically in versions: 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current)) |
| 2001105: | M/J Coastal Science 2 (Specifically in versions: 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current)) |
| Name |
Description |
| Panther Trial Jury Selection | Students will assume the role of the prosecution team or the defense team during jury selection of a case where a Florida panther is charged with the predation of a deer. Teams will learn about the jury selection process in criminal trials and apply their knowledge of the roles and relationships between species in an ecosystem to develop a method for selecting a fair jury in this model eliciting activity.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Predation on Trial | In this lesson plan, students will apply knowledge of roles and relationships in an ecosystem to develop a defense strategy in an imaginary trial where a panther is being prosecuted for predation of deer. They will explore the roles of various consumers in an ecosystem, their places in a food web, and the impact of limiting factors on populations (and vice-versa). Along the way, students will compare the rule of nature to the rule of law that people live by and consider the importance of the 6th Amendment in protecting the rights of citizens in the United States. |
| Arctic Algae | In this lesson, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how climate change is reducing the amount of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Within this sea ice is found algae that forms the base of Arctic food webs. As the sea ice goes, so does the algae, which in turn could affect the entire Arctic ecosystem. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. |
| Holy Jumping Earthworms, Batman! | In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that shows how a seemingly harmless invasive species of jumping worm may cause much more destruction than once thought. The Asian jumping worm eats the debris on the forest floor at a rate that out-competes the native worms so much so that it is causing a number of problems, including forest re-growth. This lesson plan is designed to support reading in the content area. It includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. |
| Go with the flow | This lesson uses everyday household materials to provide students with a visual representation of the energy flow through an ecosystem, emphasizing the inefficiency of this energy transfer. It provides students with the opportunity to calculate the amount of energy available for transfer between organisms integrating math into your lesson while the extension activity allows students who are stronger in language to shine as they create a newspaper article. |
| Tangled Web and a Missing Organism | Students will participate in an interactive activity in small groups. After briefly finding out what their organisms consume or what consume them, students will physically connect organisms using string and pushpins. Once the web is tangled, you will go around and designate a "removed" organism. Students will follow all the strings attached and explain how the connected organisms are affected. Eventually, in the mist of the class discussion, students will realize that the entire ecosystem is affected. |
| “Wanted: Dead or Delicious”-The food chain of the Lion Fish | This lesson is designed to get students to understand how a food chain works using an invasive species like the Lionfish. It is timely and students here on the Gulf Coast can relate to the problem. |
| Energy Transfer with Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers | Students learn about producer, consumers, and decomposers while playing a game. After the game student's will work in groups to create food webs that show how energy is transferred though an ecosystem.
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| Unlocking the Mysteries of an Ecosystem | In this lesson, students will explore an ecosystem and create a food web illustrating the relationship among producers, consumers and decomposers. They will also summarize these relationships in a paragraph. |
| Food Web | In this lesson, students will create a food web utilizing the given information and use a 3D graphic organizer (Triarama) to define and provide examples for producers, consumers, and decomposers. |
| Pizza Box Ecosystems | A long-term project in which students create a labeled ecosystem diorama out of a recycled pizza box as they complete an introductory ecology unit. |
| Producers, Consumers, Decomposers and Energy Transfer | Students will be identifying organisms as producers, consumers, or decomposers. They will be establishing the relationship that exists between food and energy and will demonstrate this understanding through the construction of food chains and food webs. |
| Town Mosquito Eradication MEA | In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will analyze a set of data to determine the best eradication technique for a town experiencing a mosquito infestation. Students will need to consider cost, impact on the environment, and effectiveness of the methods presented to them.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx |
| Learning Interdependence Through Florida's Ecosystems | Students are assigned one of Florida's ecosystems and are guided through a series of lessons that cover SC.7.L.17.1, SC.7.L.17.2, SC.7.L.17.3, culminating in a project. |
| Ecology Lesson Part 1 of 4 | This lesson is intended as the first part of a 4 part series. Part 1 is a powerpoint discussing terminology in Ecology including abiotic/biotic factors; symbiotic relationships [descriptions and examples of all 3]; producer/consumers; predator/prey; food chain;food web. Part 2 is a powerpoint that covers the biomes of the world and incorporates the terminology from part 1. Part 3 is a biomes lab activity, and Part 4 is a jeopardy review activity. |
| Ecology Lesson Part 2 of 4 - Biomes Review | This lesson is intended as part 2 of a 4 part lesson series. It is a PowerPoint that covers Biomes of the World, including their characteristics and different producers and consumers. It can be used as a stand alone lesson as well. |
| Ecology Lesson Part 3 of 4 Animal Cracker - Biomes Lab Activity | This is a fun lab activity to be used as part 3 of a 4 part series on Interdependence. It can also be used as a stand alone activity. Animal crackers are used - they can be eaten at the end of the activity- so double check with your students about any food allergies (ie gluten). |
| Survival of the Fittest | This is a five day lesson integrating Science, Reading and Writing. It is developed on a Reading lesson plan format using Shared Reading, Core Reading, Guided Reading and centers but can easily be transferred on to a Science 5E lesson format. The versatility of the lesson and the integration between subjects lends itself to it being widely used among teachers for different reasons; whether the teacher's need be in Science, Reading or Writing the lesson provides opportunities for all areas to be addressed. Most importantly, it offers the busy teacher an opportunity to implement one lesson to cover three subjects. |
| Name |
Description |
| The Ecological Cost of Dinner | This lesson is about the flow of energy in ecosystems. The setting is Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, where students will learn about the first Thanksgiving meal in America, celebrated in 1621 by early American settlers and Wampanoag Indians. By examining this meal and comparing it to a modern day Thanksgiving celebration, students will be able to explore the way in which food energy moves and is transformed in an ecosystem. The learning goals focus on the movement of energy from one feeding level to the next within a food web, the way in which energy changes form, and the inefficiency of energy transfer, which in turn affects the availability of food energy for organisms at the highest feeding level. The lesson is directed at high school level biology students. Students should be familiar already with food webs, food chains, and trophic (feeding) levels. They should also be familiar with the general equations for photosynthesis: 6H2O + 6CO2 + Energy(light) -> C6H12O6 + 6O2 and cell respiration: C6H12O6 + 6O2 -> 6H2O + 6CO2 +Energy(about 38ATP), and understand the basic purpose of these processes in nature. This lesson can be completed during one long classroom period, or can be divided over two or more class meetings. The duration of the lesson will depend on prior knowledge of the students and on the amount of time allotted for student discussion. There are no supplies required for this lesson other than the downloadable worksheets (accessed on this BLOSSOMS site), paper and some glue or tape. |
| Deep Sea Vents and Life | Excerpted from NOVA: "Volcanoes of the Deep", this video segment reveals strange and luminescent forms of life, such as giant tube worms, spider crabs, and billions of microbes clumped together like a cottony web. The site where life began on Earth may have been where black smokers stream from hydrothermal vents and chimneys along the sea floor. |
| Decomposers | This video segment from Interactive NOVA: "Earth" describes the role of decomposers in the living world. We've all been victimized by decomposers: Lettuce rots; bread becomes moldy. Bacteria and fungi often consume our food before we have a chance to. However, if we stop to consider the important work that decomposers do, we may be a little less disgruntled by their presence. |
| Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem | This PBS Nova video highlights the flow of energy through a food web of the coral reef ecosystem. A background essay and discussion questions are also provided. |
