Oregon Coast Education Program
DRAFT
Grade Band: 6-8
Web of Life- Endangered Species Edition
Loosely based on NOAA’s Food For Thought Curriculum
Time requirement: 60 (for activity); Prep and clean-up will probably add about 30
minutes.
Summary of Activity: This activity will give students a look at how all animals and plants
in a system are interconnected and what can happen when just one organism is
removed. Some of the discussion focuses on the sea otter- a species that is now extinct
from the Oregon coast.
Concepts to Teach: Food chains, Food webs, Interdependence, Endangered Species
Standards Addressed: 6.2L.2, 7.2L.2, 8.2L.1
Goal(s):
 Define interconnectedness and explain its ecological implications.
 Use vocabulary related to food webs and ecology.
 Discuss the plight of the sea otter and how that has affected systems off of
Oregon’s coast.
Specific Objectives:
 Explain why threatened or endangered species are important to the ocean.
 Demonstrate an understanding of food web interactions.
Vocabulary: (See glossary in Additional Resources section)
interconnectedness, food web, food chain, ecosystem, threatened, endangered
Required Materials:
 Yarn or string
 Cards or stickers with species names or pictures
 Open space (indoors or outdoors)
Prerequisites: None
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Background
When asked why people should save threatened or endangered marine animals or fish,
children will often answer because they are pretty or because they are nice. While this
may be true, the reason actually lies in the food chains of the ocean. Each creature in
the ocean is part of a food chain. All organisms within the web play an integral role and
the loss of just one can cause severe changes in the community interactions within the
ecosystem. Some of these changes can result in the collapse of the ecosystem. The web
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Oregon Coast Education Program
DRAFT
Grade Band: 6-8
of life exercise is an easy, but powerful way to illustrate the connectedness of the
creatures and a great beginning ecology activity.
Preparation
 Create species cards. These should have pictures or descriptions of the species,
including what that species likes to eat and who might like to eat them. This will
later help the students identify how they are connected to others.
 Make sure that there is a space available within the school (classroom, cafeteria,
hallway) that is large enough for all students to spread out into a circle.
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Lesson Procedure/Activity Description
Introduction:
Start by introducing the concepts of food chains and food webs. Ask what the students
already know. Is there a difference between the two? What is it? If no one knows,
explain that a chain is a linear relationship between a few organisms. A web is a diagram
of interactions that can go in multiple directions and include both biotic and abiotic
influences.
1. Write the name of a marine organism on the board or a large sheet of
construction paper. Have the students name something that this organism would
eat or another organism that would eat it. Write this on the board. Draw an
arrow in the appropriate direction connecting the two.
2. Have students come up and complete the chain in either direction.
3. Explain that this is a chain because it details the interactions between the
organisms, but is linear and one-dimensional.
4. Have students begin to branch off from the chain using the space above and
below. Explain that this is a web because it is not linear and spans across habitats
in the ocean. Be sure that the organism on the pointy end of the arrow is the
organism that is benefiting from the interaction. Classmates should help each
other to form the chain.
Main Activity:
1. Explain the students will now become marine organisms that are part of a food
web. The game goes as follows:
a. Arrange the students in a large circle.
b. Instructors will pass out species cards that include an organisms name
and picture, what the organism eats, and what eats the organism.
Students should review the card and hang it around their neck or clip it to
their shirt.
c. Once everyone has been assigned an organism, instructors will start to
make the connections between organisms using some yarn or thick
string.
2. Begin the game at either the top or bottom of the food chain. Link animals by
who would consume another or vice versa. You can either have the students toss
the ball of yarn or string between them, or you could walk the string in between
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Oregon Coast Education Program
DRAFT
3.
4.
5.
6.
Grade Band: 6-8
them. Students should wrap the string loosely around one finger and make sure
the string is taut, but not tight.
Once you have gotten to one end or the other, go in the other direction. Make
sure that everyone has a piece of the string.
Once everyone is connected, choose one person to tug the piece of string they
are holding. Have everyone who felt that tug raise his or her hands. Have those
that raised their hands tug on their string. Have everyone who felt that tug raise
his or her hands. And so on and so on until everyone’s hand is raised.
Instruct everyone to put their hands down and explain that we just saw that
every organism in a marine food web are somehow connected. Ask what
happens when an organism leaves the food web. This should be a verbal
explanation, and everyone should still be holding the string!
Have one student drop their string. Anyone else who felt that their string went
limp should also drop their string. And so on and so on until no one is holding
string. This is an example of how the loss of one species can affect many species
within the food web. Explain that the reason that they felt the string drop out is
because something within the system that they had a relationship with (be it
food or shelter or predation) had been affected.
Conclusion:
The topic of extinction and endangered species should be introduced. What do these
terms mean? Are these species part of the food chain? And what effect does it have
when they are removed from or there are not enough of them in the system? Which
species are directly and/or indirectly affected?
Example: Sea otters- Sea otters have been extinct in Oregon since the 1800’s. What do
sea otters eat (sea urchins)? So what happened to the urchin population when the sea
otters went away (it got too large)? And what happened to the kelp forests that the
urchins lived in (it was decimated by too many urchins)? Urchin populations crashed
because there was nothing to eat and not enough habitat to support the population. At
the same time, other animals that rely on the kelp for food or shelter were affected.
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Assessment
The students should choose an endangered species to research and write about. Have
them look at resources that explain the role played by the species.
Research: What does the organism eat? Who eats the organism? What are its habitat
requirements? In the report, the students should explain some direct and indirect
effects of this animal’s extinction. They should also detail what the greatest threat is for
extinction (habitat loss, lack of food, breeding issues, etc…). The conclusion for the
report should be a recommendation for ways to prevent the organism from going
extinct.
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Oregon Coast Education Program
DRAFT
Grade Band: 6-8
Adaptations & Extensions
 Activity: Who am I?
At the end of the main web of life activity, collect all of the species cards and
redistribute to students, but attach them to the back of their shirts or have them
wear cards with lanyards backwards. Others may look at the cards but not tell
each other who they are supposed to represent. Students should walk around
the room showing others their card and then ask questions to try to guess what
species they are. Since they have just played the web of life, they know which
species are represented. They can ask each person 3 “yes or no” questions and
then make a guess as to who they are. If they are incorrect, they have to move
on and ask someone else more questions.
Examples of questions may include:
Am I a predator?
Would a shark eat me?
Am I an herbivore?
Can I breathe above water?
Am I a fish?
This activity allows the students to use the vocabulary in conversation instead of
just in the context of the web of life activity. Instructors should help students by
reminding them of the terms as they ask questions.

This activity can really be used for any age group as is. Younger groups may need
more help with reading and vocabulary. Older groups may be capable of more
in-depth conversations surrounding interconnectedness, endangered and
threatened species, and predator-prey interactions. To make the activity more
meaningful for an older group, students could investigate the species and create
the description cards themselves. For another food web related activity for older
students, see Energy Flow in a Marine Environment (an OCEP High School lesson
plan).
Additional Resources
Glossary
 Interconnectedness- being mutually joined or related
 Food web- show how plants and animals are connected in ways to help them all
survive
 Food chain- a linear relationship between species that indicates who eats whom
 Ecosystem- the location where interactions between biotic and abiotic factors
occur
 Threatened- species vulnerable to becoming endangered
 Endangered- in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its
range
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Oregon Coast Education Program
DRAFT
Grade Band: 6-8
Standards Addressed:
6.2L.2- Explain how individual organisms and populations in an ecosystem interact and
how changes in populations are related to resources.
7.2L.2- Explain the process by which plants and animals obtain energy and materials for
growth and metabolism.
8.2L.1- Explain how species change through the process of natural selection. Describe
evidence for evolution.
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