Last updated: December 11, 2024
Lesson Plan
To Eat or Be Eaten
As omnivores, bears eat both plants and meat.
NPS/Neal Herbert
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- WY Grade 4 Science: 1.5, 2.1, 2.2
WY Grade 8 Science: 1.4, 2.2 - Additional Standards:
- Next Generation Science Standards: K-LS1-1., K-ESS3-1
Essential Question
How does the web of life connect all things in nature?
Objective
Show the relationship between animals and plants in the food chain
Explain the importance of a healthy food chain/web/cycle
State the connections between predators, prey, and plants
Background
All living things, plants and animals, are connected as parts of a food chain. Some members of the food chain are producers, providing food for other organisms. Other members are consumers of those producers. Knowledge of the interrelationships and interdependencies of living things is important.
Preparation
Required supplies include string, tape, Eat or Be Eaten Supplement, large note cards or half sheets of construction paper, and large open area, ideally outside.
Materials
Life Cards
Download Eat or Be Eaten Supplement
Lesson Hook/Preview
How can a rock connect to and affect a wolf? The sun to a trout? Does the web of life connect everything?
Procedure
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Select which animals, plants, and energy sources to include in a web of life activity. Use the Eat or Be Eaten supplement as your guide. Write the name and draw a picture of the animal/plant/energy source on the front side of the card. On the back of the card write what it eats and is eaten by. Loop a string through each card so students can wear the card like a necklace.
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Offer examples to explain the terms consumer, producer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, predator, and prey.
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Go outdoors to a large open space and provide instructions for a web of life activity without giving it a title.″
Have students form a circle.
Give students new names—Mr. Grizzly Bear, Ms. Mountain Lion, etc.
Pass out Life Cards for students to hang around their necks, picture side out. Attempt to position an animal across the circle from the food it might eat. (If it is a small group, go through the cards to select the most appropriate animals/plants and be sure to include the Sun card.)
Have students lose their voice, except when they have energy (the string).
Explain that only one card may start the game. Elicit finger pointing for who it might be. When they have determined that the Sun is the beginner of the game, have the Sun go to the center of the circle.
Give the end of the string to the Sun.
Have the Sun state whom he/she will give energy to. It must be one of the green plants. If necessary, review photosynthesis.″ Keep the string from sagging or becoming a tug-of-war object.
Have the Sun stay in the center while you walk the string to the plant. Continue to walk the string to each player as they are chosen. You will be in the web and may have to go through contortions to take the string to the next person.
Send the energy (string) back to someone who is already in the web if necessary to include all students. -
Open a discussion by asking questions. What does this look like? What have you created? If we had time and string and many more hands, could we go around more times? What are some other possible relationships that you see in the circle? Where do humans fit into this web of life?
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Discuss the importance of a healthy ecosystem to enable everything to survive. Allow two or three students to jiggle their string with a large up and down motion while everyone else sits very still. Have the others look at their own string. If their string has wiggled even a little, they are somehow connected to the others. Do this a few times, using different students each time. What would happen to them if the ecosystem became unhealthy for the other inhabitants?
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Talk about each animal and plant as you wind the string. If there were a problem with the fish, the otter would be affected, etc. You could make scenarios up as you go, but this part needs to move right along.
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Have students take off their name tags and collect them.
NOTE: You also might include soil, shelter, or water in the circle, especially if you have more than 31 participants or want to include the adults. There are no cards for them (unless you/they make them), but they could remember their role and state it to the others. This would open discussion beyond just food/energy needs. The string would become more than just food energy.
Vocabulary
Producer: organisms that make their own food
Consumer: organisms that consume other organisms to obtain their energy
Herbivore: an organism that mostly feeds on plants
Carnivore: an organism that eats mostly meat, or the flesh of animals
Omnivore: an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter
Assessment Materials
Lead a group discussion or ask students to state why they think park managers reintroduced the grey wolf to the park after they had been intentionally exterminated decades earlier. What other animal and plant species may have been affected when wolves were absent from the park ecosystem for 60 years? What species may be affected by the return of a predator such as the wolf?
What might happen if grizzly bears became extinct?
What might happen if the climate becomes markedly warmer and drier or weather patterns change drastically enough to alter plant communities and fire seasons?