Class Marine Food Web

Materials / Preparation

• A large piece of paper or bulletin board with five trophic levels indicated in a way similar to the game played in activity #3: primary producers and decomposers (at the bottom), second trophic level, third trophic level, fourth trophic level, top level consumers (at the top)
• Different color yarn.
• Scissors
• Copies of all of the students’ Marine Research Worksheets from Activity 3.

Grouping

Groups of four

Teacher tips

Remember to have students observe the results of their Making Algae Grow experiments and to make notes in the appropriate tables.

You will need a large wall space to display the material.

Procedures

1. Return copies of the Marine Research Worksheet to each student and have students label the pictures of their organisms with the following information:
• Name of the organism
• Trophic Level
• Consumer or Decomposer or Producer
• Predator or Prey
2. Have students place their labeled pictures onto the paper or bulletin board at the correct trophic level.
3. Have students glue or tape lines of yarn from each predator to its prey to create the marine food web.
4. Assign someone to make a yellow/orange sun, label it ENERGY, and attach it to the wall.
5. Assign someone to create arrows to show the flow of energy throughout the food web.
6. Discuss this marine food web and how it relates to the first pictures of the oceans that they saw earlier.

Resources used

Making Algae Grow
http://www.teachingboxes.org/upwelling/lessons/lesson1_supplement/MakingAlgaeGrow.pdf

Marine Research Worksheet
http://www.teachingboxes.org/upwelling/lessons/lesson1_supplement/MarineResearchWorksheet.pdf