Food webs and interdependence
The resources in this list look at the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, including food webs and insect pollinated crops. The list provides a range of activities, lesson ideas, film clips, careers resources, background information, practical tips and suggested teaching strategies.
At Key Stage Three, students will not need to be familiar with the term 'trophic level', but the idea that a food chain represents energy flow from one organism to another should be introduced, helping students to understand the direction of the arrows in food webs. Once students are familiar with constructing food webs from food chains, they can begin to investigate how feeding relationships within a habitat are interconnected and make predictions about the effects of different environmental factors on plant and animal populations.
Visit the secondary science webpage to access all lists: https://www.stem.org.uk/secondary-science
Whilst this list provides a source of information and ideas for experimental work, it is important to note that recommendations can date very quickly. Do NOT follow suggestions which conflict with current advice from CLEAPSS, SSERC or recent safety guides. eLibrary users are responsible for ensuring that any activity, including practical work, which they carry out is consistent with current regulations related to Health and Safety and that they carry an appropriate risk assessment. Further information is provided in our Health and Safety guidance.
A Kinaesthetic Food Web
In this case study, Sarah Williams and Matthew Bailey, from King Ecgbert School in Sheffield, share their experience of creating an interactive activity to help students with special educational needs to understand food webs and the flow of energy in food chains.
Life in the Water *suitable for home teaching*
This is a fascinating video with two supporting activities. When thinking about ocean food webs, students tend to have little idea of what is meant by zooplankton and phytoplankton. This film shows students what these organisms look like and describes how they have a crucial place in the Arctic food chain, which is highly sensitive to change.
Activity A uses an Arctic food chain to show why a pyramid of biomass is more useful than a pyramid of numbers.
Activity B develops ideas about food webs and encourages students to think about adaptations of species.
World Oceans Day *suitable for home teaching*
Mission 3: Marine Food Web provides a quick cut-and-stick food web which can be used with the resource above. If used together with the full resource, it can help students to consider the effects of changes in habitat and population on food webs, in this case the effects of ocean acidification.
Future Morph: Chief Scientific Officer (Raptor Biologist)
Raptors are top of the food chain; if a population of raptors declines, it’s a good indication that there’s something wrong within the ecological system. In this video, Campbell Murn describes some of his activities as a scientific officer at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, which include surveying habitats to assess their suitability for birds of prey, and then monitoring the birds following their release.
In a related classroom activity, students use the capture-mark-release-recapture method to estimate the abundance of 'prey' for the birds in a habitat.
Thinking about how we monitor the effects of changes in habitats on populations, and the knock-on effects on food webs, is a good opportunity to invite someone from a local conservation project, an ecologist or environmental scientist, into school to give the subject context.
Food Chains and Webs
This book looks dated now, so teachers will want to spend some time putting the exercises into a more appealing format. However, there are useful questions on the bio accumulation of DDT in food chains on page 13 of the student book.
Bumblebee Declines, Microbes, and Amazing Birds
This podcast looks at what UK farmers are doing to protect the country's vanishing bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinating insects; how scientists are trying to figure out how many types of microbes there are on our planet and why they all matter; and why birds are more amazing than we ever imagined.
Quizzes *suitable for home teaching*
The quiz Ecological Relationships makes a useful assessment activity.
Biofilms
This video and accompanying booklet provides an unusual example of a food web in a river habitat with bacteria in bioflims being the producers. It then goes onto look at eutrophication and how bioflim bacteria can help to solve this problem and the impact of antibiotic overuse. The booklet supports the video, but also describes how microbiologists measure the health of a river by taking samples and then studying them back in the laboratory.
