Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum
Objectives:
1. To show the energy flow through a food chain by constructing model food chains and food webs with the given drawings of organisms.
2. To be able to predict what might happen if one organism is removed from the food web.
Materials:

Kennedy creek watershed organisms – forest, lake/wetland, stream, salt marsh /estuary sheets

Scissors

Tape

Colored pencils

Blank paper
Explain to the students the following:
For each ecosystem in the watershed – one at a time
1. Use scissors to cut the pictures apart for that ecosystem. example – forest
2. IMPORTANT NOTE: the pictures are not all at the same scale. Explain that the zooplankton and phytoplankton are microscopic.
3. Sort the pictures into groups according to:

Producers (plants)

Herbivores (eats plants)

Carnivores (eats animals)

Omnivores (eats both plants and animals).
4. With the colored pencils mark each group a different color. For example mark the producers (do photosynthesis so make their own food) with green, the herbivores with blue, the carnivores with orange (the organisms that eat herbivores or other carnivores), and the omnivores (eat both plants and animals) half orange and half blue.
5. On a piece of paper, construct 2 food chains as they would occur in the ecosystem. Use arrows to show that energy is passed from one organism to another as the organisms get eaten. Include a producer, herbivore and at least one carnivore in each food chain. Arrows go from the animal that is eaten to the animal doing the eating, into the mouth. The decomposers, bacteria and fungi, are not included in this activity but …. You could add them, everything is decomposed eventually.
6. Use the rest of the pictures to form a food web, including the two food chains you made. First arrange them on a piece of paper. Remember that a food web is made of several food chains linked together. Construct a food web as it would occur in the ecosystem. Tape your food web to the sheet after it is checked by the teacher. Again, use the arrows to show that energy is passed from one living organism to another.
7. There are two sets of questions for students to answer after they construct their food web. One set consists of general questions that apply to the food web. The second set applies specifically to Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail and would be a good exercise to complete after visiting the trail.

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum
EALR Information
Component
Analyze how the parts of system go together and how these parts depend on each other
Understand that an organism’s ability to survive is influenced by the organism’s behavior and the ecosystem in which it lives.
Understand how to use simple models to represent objects, events, systems and processes.
Understand how knowledge and skills of science, mathematics, and technology are used in common occupations.
Understand how humans depend on the natural environment and can cause changes in the environment that affect humans’ ability to survive.
Kennedy Creek Food Web
Benchmark Assessment
1.2.1 Students will construct food chains and a food web.
1.3.10
2.1.4
3.2.3
3.2.4
Students will arrange the components of the food web based on relationships among organisms.
Students will cut out, arrange, and tape the various parts of a system together to make a food chain and a food web.
Students will learn that the information used to make the food webs came from scientific studies.
Students will write answers to questions regarding the food web and its relationship to human behaviors.

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum
1. What might happen in the stream food web if all the trees and bushes were taken away from the edge of the stream? State which organisms would be directly affected. State which organisms would be indirectly affected and explain why.
2. What might happen in the forest food web if all the owls were to die? State which organisms would be directly affected. State which organisms would be indirectly affected and explain why.
3. What might happen to the food web in the lake/wetland ecosystem if everyone around the lake put in walls or bulkheads between the water and land and made lawns right down to the water.
State which organisms would be directly affected. State which organisms be indirectly affected and explain why.

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum
4. In the salt marsh/estuary ecosystem what would happen to the food web if no Mallards visited the marsh? State which organisms would be directly affected. State which organisms be indirectly affected and explain why.
5. Put your different food webs next to each other. List which organisms would move between ecosystems and use resources (or be a food item) in a different food web.
6. Describe how the various ecosystems in the watershed are dependent or interconnected to each other. Use the food webs to provide three examples.

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum
Follow the food web construction activity with these questions about Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail:
1. What might happen to the food web at Kennedy Creek if all the bushes and trees were removed from the edge of the stream? What creatures would be affected first? Over time, what other plants and animals might be affected?
2. What might happen at Kennedy Creek if only ten salmon returned to spawn? State which plants and animals would be affected and why. Would salmon return next year? Why or why not?
3. What would happen to predators at Kennedy Creek if no salmon returned? Which predators would adapt and which would not? Why?

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum
4. What might happen to the Kennedy Creek food web if houses were built all around the Totten
Inlet estuary/salt marsh? Imagine that all the native plants were replaced by green lawns. How would this affect Kennedy Creek?
5. Think about the different food chains at Kennedy Creek – a stream food chain, an estuary/salt marsh food chain, a forest food chain. Together these food chains make up the Kennedy Creek food web. Which plants and animals in the Kennedy Creek food web would use resources in several food chains? Make a list.
6. Describe what would happen if someone drove a quad (an all-terrain vehicle) through the estuary.
Which plants and animals would be affected, and how?

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum

Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail Curriculum