From Seed to Seed:
Plant Science for K-8 Educators

 

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    The Food Web

Another point to keep in mind is that every living thing-plant, insect, animal, even microbe-is either eaten by, or eats, other organisms. Certainly you have heard of the food chain, or food web. There is an intricate web of producers and consumers in every garden. Plants are primary producers. They produce carbohydrates from the energy from the sun. Herbivorous creatures-the plant eaters, including many insects and animals-eat plants, taking the energy from the carbohydrates and using it for their own needs. Carnivores-the meat-eaters-consume the herbivores.

It is relatively simple to demonstrate the food web in your classroom. Assign each student a part in the food chain. Students wear signs that identify them as either primary producers (different species of plants), herbivores (deer, for example) or carnivores (wolf, for example). Students sit in a circle. Give a long piece of yarn to a primary producer. This primary producer holds onto the end of the yarn strand and passes the remainder to another student who is capable of eating that producer (a herbivore). This process continues-with each member of the food chain becoming "connected" to those that they eat or are eaten by-until all students are involved. This "web" emphasizes how interconnected the lives of each of these organisms are. As an extension, you can pluck a single stretch of yarn and ask students who felt the plucking to raise their hands. This part of the activity emphasizes that a single event can impact several members of the food web.

The same drama is played out in your schoolyard garden. Caterpillars are one type of herbivore, munching as they do on your plants. Birds may play the role of carnivore, grabbing a caterpillar lunch at any chance they get. And on a smaller scale, aphids are frequent herbivore visitors. Carnivorous ladybug larvae, however, are voracious consumers of aphids.


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