Adapted from Life Sciences Wahiawa (https://sites.google.com/site/lifescienceswahiawa/home/webquests/7-3-1-food-webs-webquest)
We’ve learned that all organisms need energy to survive. The primary source of energy for all organisms begins with the sun. Sunlight provides the necessary energy for producers (plants) to complete photosynthesis. These producers are eaten by primary consumers (herbivores).These herbivore consumers are eaten by carnivores or secondary consumers. Sometimes, carnivores will eat other carnivores. These consumers are known as tertiary consumers. These interactions can be represented by a simple food chain. A bunch of food chains in the same ecosystem put together can make a food web. Food chains and food webs show the flow energy from one organism to another.
Recall that the arrows in a food chain and a food web show the direction that the energy is flowing. For example, in the food chain above, the energy flows from the sun, to the grass, to the grasshopper, to the shrew, to the owl. The arrows indicate the direction energy is being transferred with arrow pointing away from the eaten (prey or plant) and towards the eater (predator or grazer).
YOUR TASK
Through this Web Quest, you’ll practice making food chains and food webs in a variety of ways.
SECTION #1: THREE FOOD CHAINS
Make at least 3 food chains or food webs from the following sites. Write down the name of each food chain or food web you complete AND draw a quick illustration of that food chain/web. Click on the links below to get started.
SECTION #2: FOOD CHAIN QUIZ
Take the food chain quiz by clicking the link below. Be SURE to RECORD YOUR ANSWERS and your SCORE!
SECTION #3: RUTGERS FOOD WEB GAME
Try and Score the HIGHEST score (100) on the Rutgers Food Web Game
SELF EVALUATION
All finished? SUBMITyour assignment! Now you can play some of these practice games!
Who Wants to be a Millionaire: http://www.quia.com/rr/53234.html
Fill in the Blanks: http://www.gould.edu.au/foodwebs/kids_web.htm
An additional copy of the worksheet can be found here:
Good luck!
Meredith is a National Board Certified Teacher and has been teaching middle grades science for over a decade. She enjoys all science curricula but life sciences are her passion. She loves creativity and organization and feels at her best in the classroom when she can infuse these aspects into her lessons to help set up her students for success.
