Science Lesson Plan
Biomes: The Arctic Food Web1
Grade Level: 6
Overview: Students will learn important vocabulary, what plants and animals live in the Arctic,
and how they interact in a food web.
Objective: Students will be able to define key terms from the lesson, be able to give examples of
Artic wildlife, create three accurate Arctic food chains with at least three organisms each, develop
an Arctic food web with classmates, and give at least two examples of how global warming affects
the Arctic food web. They will then choose one animal that resides in the Arctic and research its
habitat, what it eats, and its natural predator if it has one. Students will then create a wiki page on
Confluence including the information that they researched and how global warming might be
affecting each of these in relation to the animal.
Standards:
6.2.7
Locate information in reference books, back issues of newspapers and
magazines, CD-ROMs, and computer databases.
6.3.13
Identify, explain, and discuss some effects human activities, such as the
creation of pollution, have on weather and the atmosphere.
6.4.8
Explain that in all environments, such as freshwater, marine, forest, desert,
grassland, mountain, and others, organisms with similar needs may
compete with one another for resources, including food, space, water, air,
and shelter. Note that in any environment, the growth and survival of
organisms depend on the physical conditions.
6.4.9
Recognize and explain that two types of organisms may interact in a
competitive or cooperative relationship, such as producer*/consumer*,
predator*/prey*, or parasite*/host*.
6.4.10
Describe how life on Earth depends on energy from the sun.
Materials:
o “Arctic Biomes: Wild Arctic” DVD
o Computer with Internet access
o Paper
o Pencil
Procedure:
1. After watching “Arctic Biomes: Wild Arctic,” provide a
transparency with the definitions of these key terms:
a. Arctic
b. Food chain
c. Food web
d. Phytoplankton
e. Zooplankton
f. Sea Ice
1
Adapted from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/biomes_wildarctic/
2. Explain the relationship between predators and prey.
3. Explain the transfer of energy between organisms. Explain how the sun provides energy for
organisms at the base of food chains.
4. Ask students to name organisms that they saw in the video. Write them on the board.
5. Ask students to create three food chains with a partner. Each food chain must show the relationships
between at least three organisms from the list of organisms in the video.
6. Students may use the Internet to find more information about Arctic animals (what they eat, etc.)
7. Ask students to name the organism that is at the base of the Arctic food web.
8. As a class, have students combine their food chains to make an Arctic food web, with phytoplankton
as the base.
9. Have students discuss the effects that global warming has on sea ice and, subsequently, the Arctic
food chain. Discuss human influences on global warming.
10. Allow the students to form teams and pick an animal (or organism) from the Arctic that they would
like to research and study for the next few weeks.
11. Designate time to take the class to an open computer lab and let them research and compile
information on their animal or organism they have chosen.
12. Have the students create a Confluence page about their animal or organism that contains the
following: habitat, what it eats, and its natural predator if it has one.
13. Now link all the different animals together to create an actual food web on Confluence. So under
what an animal eats, have those link to the page about that animal so the students can follow the food
chain through Confluence.
14. Open a discussion on Confluence about the affects of global warming and have the students discuss
how it may affect their animal and the whole Arctic ecosystem.
Evaluation: To assess the student’s learning, collect and grade their food chains. Also, have students
complete a worksheet over the vocabulary words they learned. Test students on their ability to identify
and create accurate food webs and food chains. Lastly, evaluate how well the students are able to
collaborate with each other and research material on a given topic. Grade them on how well they are
able to work as a team and develop their ideas and think critically about how an external factor (global
warming) can affect an environment.