Are you searching for an engaging and educational ecology activity to try with your students? Building your own food webs is a fantastic way to study the flow of energy between organisms – all while allowing kids to be creative! Best of all, this is an activity that you can complete outside, making it perfect for homeschool parents and teachers who enjoy having class outdoors! Get ready to inspire your students with this unique and interactive ecology project!
What is a food web?
A food web is a complex network of feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem. Energy flows from the organism being eaten to the organism doing the eating. We represent food webs using diagrams with arrows between the organisms. Food web diagrams map the many paths for the movement of energy between organisms.
I wrote a separate blog post in which you and your students can read more about food webs and food chains. It includes lots of diagrams and examples!
What types of organisms make a food web?
All the different lifeforms coexisting in an ecosystem form a community. The community is made of many individual, diverse lifeforms – like plants, animals, and fungi – called organisms.
When you build your food web model, it will include many different types of organisms. These organisms fall into three main categories, based on the roles they play in the food web. Knowing the difference between these roles will help you and your students build food webs.
In an ecosystem you will find the following types of organisms:
1. Producer:
An organism that produces its own food through photosynthesis. Producers use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make their own food. They also need soil nutrients.
Examples: trees and other plants, some plankton, moss, some microorganisms
2. Consumer:
An organism that eats other organisms as food. Consumers cannot make their own food. Consumers can be herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, and scavengers.
Examples: insects, birds, frogs, deer, other animals
3. Decomposer:
An organism that recycles nutrients back into the soil by eating and digesting decayed plant and animal matter and waste.
Examples: mushrooms, some worms, soil bacteria
Make your own food webs activity:
Gather your materials and follow these steps to create your own food webs with your students. You can all work on one big food web together, or each student can make their own mini-food web! There are many possibilities!
Materials
- Flashcards or pictures of the organisms in an ecosystem (plants, animals, fungi, etc…)
- Find an easy-to-use set in my food webs unit
- Or, get a set for an ecosystem of interest (e.g., desert, arctic, forest, etc…)
- You can also make your own set!
- Sidewalk chalk
- A large, paved area outdoors that is free of cars and heavy foot-traffic
Step-by-Step Directions
Set-Up:
- Sort the organism cards into 3 piles:
- producers
- consumers
- decomposers
- Look through your producers pile.
- This pile represents the food sources for herbivores and omnivores (primary consumers) in your ecosystem.
- Look through the consumers pile.
- Sort these cards further or make a mental note of which organisms are likely to eat plants (herbivores and omnivores) and which organisms are likely to eat animals (carnivores and omnivores).
- Research the diets of unfamiliar animals.
- If students are unfamiliar with some of the animals and their diets, it may help to research the animals online. You can take notes on the backs of the cards if needed.
- Note: if you’re using my food webs unit, a handout is provided with info on the diets of the included animals!
Build Your Food Web:
- Choose your producers.
- It is easiest to start with one to three producers.
- Which consumers eat your producers? These are your primary consumers.
- Place the primary consumers above your producers and draw arrows to represent the flow of energy from food to eater.
- Which consumers eat your primary consumers? These are your secondary consumers.
- Place the secondary consumers above your primary consumers and draw arrows to represent the flow of energy from food to eater.
- Which consumers eat your secondary consumers? These are your tertiary consumers.
- Place the tertiary consumers above your secondary consumers and draw arrows to represent the flow of energy from food to eater.
- Repeat this process as needed, until your reach a consumer that is not eaten by anyone else – this is your top predator!
- You can make your food web as big or small as you’d like! It could include dozens of organisms or just a few.
- Add additional arrows as needed.
- Food webs can be messy! Many any animals have multiple food sources and are preyed on by multiple predators.
- Optional: place any decomposer cards underneath the food web. Decomposers recycle nutrients back into the soil to help producers like plants grow!
Example Food Webs:
Here are some pictures of different food webs, big and small!
Study Food Webs with Wild Earth Lab:
Of course you can put together your own food web materials to complete this activity. Or, save time and support my blog when your purchase my food webs unit! The unit includes everything you need to complete this activity plus additional handouts, worksheets, and readings!
Explore more lessons from Wild Earth Lab:
If you enjoyed this post, I know you will love using my other environmental science materials in your classroom!
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