Students will create a food chain model and use it to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment. Resources include a detailed lesson plan, student handouts, pictures of a completed chain, examples of student work, and a video of the lesson in action.
Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understand—and apply—key concepts. The 2nd edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. Art and illustrations have been substantially improved, and the textbook features additional assessments and related resources.
By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:
Describe the basic ecosystem types
Explain the methods that ecologists use to study ecosystem structure and dynamics
Identify the different methods of ecosystem modeling
Differentiate between food chains and food webs and recognize the importance of each
Biomass Basics Lesson.
College-level online course highlighting the fundamentals of ecology. Course topics include coevolution of the biosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere; photosynthesis and respiration; and the carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles. Other topics include energy flow through the biosphere and changes in ecosystems. This course features selected lecture notes, assignments with solutions, projects and examples, and exams with solutions.
Is the food chain shown above accurate? Does the first link depict a producer, the second link a herbivore, and the third link an omnivore / carnivore? Students must correctly determine whether a species is a producer or consumer, and what type of consumer; herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore. Students are provided with a list of Sonoran Desert species and asked to construct, within their groups, several food chains. These food chains are then be used to construct a food web. In order to complete this activity, students must first research the individual species to understand their feeding habits.
The levels of contaminants found in particular animals vary widely depending on where they fit into the Arctic food chain, as described in this video segment adapted from LOKE Films and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.
Learn about estuaries, where the fresh water rivers meet the salt water of the oceans. The unique features of estuaries are explained, followed by a look into estuarine food webs. Next find out about the different plants and animals that call estuaries home. A list of resources completes the fact sheet.
With a continued focus on the Sonoran Desert, students are introduced to the concepts of food chains and food webs through a PowerPoint® presentation. They learn the difference between producers and consumers and study how these organisms function within their communities as participants in various food chains. They further understand ecosystem differences by learning how multiple food chains link together to form intricate and balanced food webs. At lesson end, students construct food webs using endemic desert species.
Students learn about energy flow in food webs, including the roles of the sun, producers, consumers and decomposers in the energy cycle. They model a food web and create diagrams of food webs using their own drawings and/or images from nature or wildlife magazines. Students investigate the links between the sun, plants and animals, building their understanding of the web of nutrient dependency and energy transfer.
Students learn about energy and nutrient flow in various biosphere climates and environments. They learn about herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, food chains and food webs, seeing the interdependence between producers, consumers and decomposers. Students are introduced to the roles of the hydrologic (water), carbon, and nitrogen cycles in sustaining the worlds' ecosystems so living organisms survive. This lesson is part of a series of six lessons in which students use their growing understanding of various environments and the engineering design process, to design and create their own model biodome ecosystems.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is an intriguing and publicized environmental problem. This swirling soup of trash up to 10 meters deep and just below the water surface is composed mainly of non-degradable plastics. These plastic materials trap aquatic life and poison them by physical blockage or as carriers of toxic pollutants. The problem relates to materials science and the advent of plastics in modern life, an example of the unintended consequences of technology. Through exploring this complex issue, students gain insight into aspects of chemistry, oceanography, fluids, environmental science, life science and even international policy. As part of the GIS unit, the topic is a source of content for students to create interesting maps communicating something that they will likely begin to care about as they learn more.
Soil is an ecosystem, full of both living organisms and nonliving factors. These factors interact within the ecosystem to support one another. Find out what methods are used by soil scientists and microbiologists to measure the diversity of life in soil. Students will be given a scenario and led through this series of activities to determine the healthiest soils. This unit features 3 lessons and 9 files. Lessons are aligned to NGSS.
This video from Jean Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures, describes the unique, interdependent characteristics of an underwater kelp forest ecosystem and explores the delicate balance of life between sea otters, urchins, and the kelp plant. [2:54]
This article discuss basic ecological concepts such as food chains and webs within the context of the tundra.
Students gain an understanding of the parts of a plant, plant types and how they produce their own food from sunlight through photosynthesis. They also learn about transpiration, the process by which plants release moisture to the atmosphere. With this understanding, students test the effects of photosynthesis and transpiration by growing a plant from seed. They learn how plants play an important part in maintaining a balanced environment in which the living organisms of the Earth survive. This lesson is part of a series of six lessons in which students use their evolving understanding of various environments and the engineering design process, to design and create their own model biodome ecosystems.
This lesson will review the difference between producers and consumers, and show how both play important roles in a food web. It is 3 of 4 in the series titled "Producers and Consumers."
