Food Chains, Food Webs, and Trophic
Levels
Food Chains and Webs
Trophic Levels
Soil Food Webs and Other Types
Example of a food web
example of food chain
Possible Activities for Classroom
Circle of Life - This is a great activity for introducing food
chains and webs…connects to children’s own eating habits; I
would use this as an introduction to food webs.
Creating an Actual Food Web – This is a great activity for
students to understand food webs by actual hands-on learning.
I would use this lesson once students have an understanding of
what food webs are.
Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave! – This has extension
activities and will really help understanding with a hands-on
approach and research skills are needed. I would use this
lesson as a culminating activity
Interdependence in Food Webs – This shows how the elements
are all connected and if one is lost; the whole food chain may
not exist anymore.
Local Issues
Timber Rattlesnakes- They are becoming extinct, due to loss of
habitat and human persecution. However, Indiana is hosting relocated
Timber Rattlesnakes, with the hopes of saving them. However, once they
are introduced to Indiana, they become a major player in a food web. They
eat small mammals (mice, squirrels, chipmunks, shrews, weasels, etc.) and
also have been known to eat ground nesting birds. What would this mean to
small mammals?
~~ This would be a good example for upper elementary
students to get them thinking about local issues and how the newly relocated
Timber Rattlesnakes would affect the animals already living in the
environment…
Water Flea – These were introduced to Southern Lake Michigan in
1999 and are a serious threat. They have no known enemy and rapidly
reproduce. They also eat zooplankton, which are what the small fish in the
area feed off of. If the water flea controls the zooplankton, the small fish
will have nothing to eat and die off and their predators will not have that
source as food anymore.