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Activity #1 – WE ARE ALL CONNECTED (Whole class)
ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY
Background Information: An ecosystem is the sum of all the living (biotic) and nonliving
ecosystem
(abiotic) things in an area. Energy and materials in an ecosystem move from autotrophs,
autotrophs / heterotrophs
organisms that capture energy and store it in food, to heterotrophs, organisms that get
producer / consumer
energy by consuming other organisms. Heterotrophs are also known as consumers.
food chain / food web
Primary consumers, such as rabbits and elephants, are consumers that eat producers.
primary consumer
Secondary consumers eat primary consumers. Tertiary consumers eat secondary
secondary consumer
consumers. The path of food and energy from producer to consumer to decomposer is a
tertiary consumer
food chain. Food chains that interconnect through multiple feeding relationships make up
a food web.
Materials:
 Pictures of Organisms
 Ball of Yarn
Procedures:
1. Tape to your chest, the picture of the organism provided by your teacher.
2. Stand in a circle and introduce yourself as the plant or animal you represent.
While doing this, begin thinking about the answers to the questions below.
A. Who in the circle could I give my energy to? (Who might eat me?)
B. Who in the circle could give me energy? (Whom could I eat?)
3. The student with the sun picture should stand in the center of the circle.
4. The ball of yarn represents the energy flow in this ecosystem. As each student
throws the yarn ball, he/she will explain the transfer of energy that took
place using essential vocabulary and the 10% rule using 1000 kJ as the
starting point.
5. The student representing the sun holds on to the end of the yarn and tosses the ball of yarn to someone who can use
that energy.
6. When a student receives the ball of yarn, he or she should hold a piece of the yarn and throw the ball to someone else
that could use the energy. For example, the sun might throw the ball of yarn to the grass, the grass to the
grasshopper, and the grasshopper to the meadowlark. (ALL ORGANISMS WILL BE CONNECTED BY THE YARN)
7. When the yarn reaches a carnivore, break it off. This represents a food chain.
8. Toss the yarn to the sun to start another food chain. Continue making chains until every classmate holds at least one
strand of yarn.
Discussion Questions:
1. How many food chains did we create? How many food webs did we create? Explain the difference.
2. Why is a food web a more complete picture of the feeding relationships in an ecosystem than a food chain?
3. Identify and describe an ecosystem in or around your home. List all the biotic and abiotic factors interacting there and
explain how you think they affect each other.
NOTES: _______________________________________________________________________________________________
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©Copyright 2014-All rights reserved www.cpalms.org
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Activity #2 – ENERGY FLOW (Collaborative Activity)
ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY
Background Information: Each feeding level in an ecosystem is a trophic level. Producers
trophic level
make the first trophic level. The second trophic level is made up of primary consumers
energy pyramid
(herbivores) and so on. Scientists use energy pyramids to show the energy loss between
trophic levels in an ecosystem. Energy changes as it flows through an ecosystem. Only about 10% of the energy from any
trophic level is passed to the next level. Much of the “lost” energy is released to the environment. The small amount of
energy that passes from one trophic level to the next limits the number of organism that can exist at each trophic level, as
well as the size of the food chain.
Materials:
 Pictures of Organisms
 Pyramid Template
Procedures:
1. To the right of the pyramid diagram, label all the pyramid’s energy transfer levels with the appropriate term: trophic
level 1, trophic level 2, trophic level 3, and trophic level 4.
2. To the left of the pyramid diagram, label all of the pyramid’s energy transfer levels with the appropriate term: producer,
primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer. Write them in column 2 of the table.
3. From the Everglades Species List, select organisms to represent each level of the pyramid. Place these pictures inside
the trophic level they belong to.
4. Write the names of the organisms that you selected in Step 3 in column 3 on the table.
5. Place the Energy Available labels (200 kJ, 19.6 kJ, 2.0 kJ, and 0.19 kJ) in the appropriate trophic level on the pyramid
template. Write them in column 4 of the table.
6. Calculate the percent of energy that is transferred from the first trophic level to the second trophic level.
A. Divide energy from trophic level 2 from trophic level 1 and multiply by 100. This amount is the percent of
energy transferred. Record it in column 5 of the table.
7. Calculate the percent of energy transferred from trophic level 2 to trophic level 3.
8. Calculate the percent of energy transferred from trophic level 3 to trophic level 4.
Observations:
Organism Feeding
Trophic Level
Organism Name
Energy (kJ)
Percent Energy Transferred
Group
1
2
𝟏𝟗. 𝟔 ÷ 𝟐𝟎𝟎 × 𝟏𝟎𝟎 = 𝟗. 𝟖%
3
4
Discussion Questions:
1. Why do autotrophs, or producers, always occupy the lowest level of ecological pyramids?
2. If only 10% of the available energy is passed on to the next trophic level, what happens to the other 90%?
3. Why do most ecosystems normally contain only a few trophic levels?
NOTES: _______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
©Copyright 2014-All rights reserved www.cpalms.org
Name:
Date:
©Copyright 2014-All rights reserved www.cpalms.org
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