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food web

Food Web Relationships - producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host

"When we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe" -- John Muir

1. Get the facts about - Food Chains and Webs

Food Chain and Food web | Meadow Food Chains, Kalman, Bobbie

Exploring Meadow Food Chains by Katie Kawa

Food Chains in a Meadow Habitat by Isaac Nadeau, Dwight Kuhn (Check your library)

2. Read the folk tale Sly Fox by Beulah Murrelle

right arrow 3. Create a matrix (Need help? - Matrices @ Math Dude) tablr

Use the first row to label the Columns -

Animal Species - Predator - Prey - Producer - Consumer - Parasite - Host.

Down the first column, enter each animal species mentioned in the story.
(Skip the one in the simile.)
Or select 7 species found in meadows, fields and fencerows in your local/state.

Enter 1 animal species in each row starting in row 2.

right arrow Use the matrix to sort out the relationships.

For each species :

Ask yourself - Is it a predator? If yes, place a blue checkmarkcheckmark in the cell.
If no, leave the cell blank.

Continue through each column and do all animal rows.

right arrow Examine the matrix - What have you found?

How many of the animals are predators?

What percentage of the animals are prey?

How many of the animals are producers?

What percentage are consumers?

Which relationship is represented the most in the story?

Which relationship is represented the least in the story?

What conclusion(s) can you come to using the information?

Extend your efforts:

right arrow Draw a food web of fields & meadow organisms. Show the flow of energy.
(You do not have to draw pictures. Use public domain images. If you prefer, type the names and draw the arrows using the draw arrow tool.)

(doc. / pdf version of this activity for printing)

Fields, Meadows, and Fencerows: Habitat / Mammals / Birds / Insect - Butterflies & Moths / Trees & Plants / Conclusions

Ecology Vocabulary Exercise / Life Cycles / Bird Facts Table / Mammals Morphology compare

EcoCommunity Status in your state | Fields, Meadows and Fencerows eGame |

Citizen Scientist - Collect some data | Collecting data Activity doc. / pdf | Outside - In Showcase Project

Bats are our Buddies | Screech Owls Activity | Plan a School Habitat Garden Project | Bluebirds Project

Milkweeds & Monarch Butterfly Mania | Water and Watershed studies | Plants and People

Wildflowers info | Environmental Inquiry | Fields, Meadows & fencerows photos | Make an A to Z book

Internet Hunts / Puzzles and Projects / Problem based Learning / Civics & History / Habitat Garden / Nature / Home

Updated 10/2008
2000 Cynthia J. O'Hora This project may be freely use in a nonprofit setting.

Pennsylvania Science Anchors
S.A.2. Processes, Procedures, and Tools of Scientific Investigations

S.A.3. Systems, Models, and Patterns

Science NetLinks Benchmark 5 - The Living Environment
How living things function and interact. A. Diversity of Life

"One of the most general distinctions among organisms is between plants, which use sunlight to make their own food, and animals, which consume energy-rich foods. Animals and plants have a great variety of body plans and internal structures that contribute to their being able to make or find food and reproduce. All organisms, including the human species, are part of and depend on two main interconnected global food webs."

D. Interdependence of Life - " In all environments freshwater, marine, forest, desert, grassland, mountain, and others organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources, including food, space, water, air, and shelter.

Two types of organisms may interact with one another in several ways: They may be in a producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host relationship."

tree icon Save a tree - use a Digital Answer format - Highlight the text of the title, directions and questions. Copy the text. Paste it in a word processing document. Save the document in your folder. Answer on the word processing document. Submit your assignment via an email attachment or class electronic dropbox.. Make Your Own Printed answer sheet.

The goal of this web project is to inform people through research and employing higher order thinking skills. This study unit encourages the use of free Internet information resources. Activities develop writing, information literacy, technology and mathematics skills. The resources posted here may be freely adapted or modified to meet each student's unique skills or interests.