Lesson Plan

Teacher: Katie Wampler

Objective:

Grade/Subject/Skill or Topic: 7th/Science/Ecology

Students will:

Identify the sun as the source of virtually all of the energy available to living
things on Earth;
Understand the direction of flow within an energy pyramid;
Understand that energy pyramids get smaller toward the top because energy is
inefficiently transferred from one level to the next;
Know that only about 10% of the energy available actually makes it to the next
level
Create food webs of their own in small groups;
Know that if one member of a food web is disrupted or altered, that perturbation
is felt throughout the entire web;
Compare their food webs in class;
Be able to draw a food web with arrows indicating the direction of flow of energy.

TEKS:
Science:
(5) Matter and energy. The student knows that interactions occur between matter
and energy. The student is expected to:
(A) Recognize that radiant energy from the Sun is transformed into
chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis;
(B) Demonstrate and explain the cycling of matter within living systems
such as in the decay of biomass in a compost bin; and
(C) Diagram the flow of energy through living systems, including food
chains, food webs, and energy pyramids.
ELA:
(9) Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Culture and History. Students
analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about the authors purpose in
cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text
to support their understanding. Students are expected to explain the difference
between the theme of a literary work and the authors purpose in an expository
text.
(14) Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning,
drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to:

(A) plan a first draft by selecting a genre appropriate for conveying the intended
meaning to an audience, determining appropriate topics through a range of strategies
(e.g., discussion, background reading, personal interests, interviews), and developing a
thesis or controlling idea;
(B) develop drafts by choosing an appropriate organizational strategy (e.g., sequence
of events, cause-effect, compare-contrast) and building on ideas to create a focused,
organized, and coherent piece of writing;
(C) revise drafts to ensure precise word choice and vivid images; consistent point of
view; use of simple, compound, and complex sentences; internal and external
coherence; and the use of effective transitions after rethinking how well questions of
purpose, audience, and genre have been addressed;
(D) edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling; and
(E) revise final draft in response to feedback from peers and teacher and publish
written work for appropriate audiences.
(23) Research/Gathering Sources. Students determine, locate, and explore the full
range of relevant sources addressing a research question and systematically record the
information they gather. Students are expected to:
(A) follow the research plan to gather information from a range of relevant print and
electronic sources using advanced search strategies;
(B) categorize information thematically in order to see the larger constructs inherent in
the information;
(C) record bibliographic information (e.g., author, title, page number) for all notes and
sources according to a standard format; and
(D) differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism and identify the importance of
citing valid and reliable sources.
Technology:
1) Creativity and innovation. The student uses creative thinking and innovative
processes to construct knowledge, generate new ideas, and create products.
The student is expected to:
(A) Identify, create, and use files in various formats such as text, raster and
vector graphics, video and audio files;
(B) Create and present original works as a means of personal or group
expression

Materials/Resources needed:

Enough string for each group to construct a food web

Sets of 6 organisms for students to construct food web
Computers for research
What If There Were No Bees?: A Book About the Grassland Ecosystem (Food
Chain Reactions) by Suzanne Slade
What If There Were No Gray Wolves?: A Book About the Temperate Forest
Ecosystem (Food Chain Reactions) by Suzanne Slade
What If There Were No Sea Otters?: A Book About the Ocean Ecosystem (Food
Chain Reactions) by Suzanne Slade
What If There Were No Lemmings?: A Book About the Tundra Ecosystem (Food
Chain Reactions) by Suzanne Slade
Additional Reading Resources
o Pass the Energy, Please! by Barbara Shaw McKinney
o Here Is the African Savanna by Madeleine Dunphy
o Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber

Anticipatory Set:
Teacher led discussion:
The teacher will capture students interest by asking thought provoking questions as well
as showing interesting pictures. The teacher is also gaining attention by playing out a
scenario through class discussion.
Ask the students if they have ever heard the word ecology. What does it mean? Teacher
can draw a concept web on the board and fill it out as students offer their
answers/thoughts. This should help introduce the concept of an ecosystem. Tell them
that theyre going to learn about parts of an ecosystem interacting.
Ask students why do things eat? (Show a picture of a predator eating its prey or short
exciting clip.) The students should be guided to the conclusion: to gain energy. Next,
show a picture or have the students think of a field of grass. Ask where the grass gets its
energy. Now, have the students think about a bison that comes along and eats the grass.
Then tell them a human comes along and eats the bison. Ask, which way is energy
moving? (Energy moves from what is being eaten to the eater.)

Now, tell the kids that one bison has 100 units of energy in it. Ask, how many bison
would a person need to eat to get all 100 Es? Allow some time for the students to come
up with their answers. They can discuss with their partner or group first and then once
share their hypothesis with the class. The answer is 10 and the teacher should tell them
that once they share their results. Now, show the students an energy pyramid. Explain
that the reason why the pyramid gets smaller toward the top is because only a small
amount of the energy available at the level below is passed to the level above. The rate
of energy exchange is about 10%, so if there are 1000 Es in the grass, the bison gets
about 100 Es and the person in turn gets about 10 Es. The remaining energy (90%) is
either 1) lost as heat 2) not consumed 3) lost via excretion. Ask where all the Es are
coming from again. Emphasis is needed on the fact that energy comes from the sun
supplying everything.

Instructional input:
Students are broken into smaller groups, at least 5 per group. Have the students choose
an ecosystem. Now, ask the group members to think of a plant or tree in that ecosystem.
Have the individual who thought of the plant first take one end of the string.
Next, ask the remaining members of the groups to think of something that relies upon
that plant. Run the string from the first group member to the student who first comes up
with an organism. Continue this process until the string is connecting all members of the
group. This is to illustrate a food web.
Now, ask the students to think of some kind of a disturbance that would affect one part of
the food web. For example, a fire burns all of one of the plants. Have whichever group
that was affected pull on the string. In this case it was the student that represented the
plants. Then ask every group member who felt the tug to, in turn, tug on the string
themselves. This should be repeated until all group members are tugging on the string.
Have the groups read one of the four books provided. If you have enough books you
can break them up into smaller groups. If you do have enough have them utilize the
pairs read strategy. If you do not have enough books for smaller groups then keep them
in their larger groups and they can take turns reading. If this is the case, students are to
take notes while in their groups. They complete 3-2-1 strategy chart.
After reading is complete, we will come together to share what we have learned from
our books with the rest of the class.

Modeling:

The teacher will model the hands on activity: expectations, procedures, duration. The
teacher will also model what is expected of the project: expectations, procedures,
duration, and where to turn in completed work. Students are assigned groups by the
teacher. Groups are diversified among abilities.

Check for understanding:

Teacher asks questions throughout the lesson. Questions will be targeted to individuals,
groups, and the class as a whole.
Questions to ask:

Which way is energy moving?

Where does energy originate?
How does energy make its way from the Sun to the muscle cells in a persons
body?
What happened when a part of a food web is disturbed?
Can you provide a real life example of a disturbance in a food web that goes on to
affect the rest of the web?
What would happen if all photosynthesis on the planet stopped?

Guided practice:
Students construct a food web consisting of 5 or 6 organisms (teacher provides a set of
organisms). The students are to draw a food web using arrows to indicate the direction of
energy flow. If students are confusing the direction of the arrow, ask which way is the
energy flowing? to prompt them.
Students successfully complete a food web as a group.

Observation of students by teacher who asks questions about the activities at the
group and re-teach as needed.

Closure:
Recap what we have learned:
1) Nearly all of the energy available to living things on the Earth comes from the sun;

2) Only a small portion of the energy, about 10% on average, available at one level of an
energy pyramid gets passed along to the level above (thats why its an energy pyramid
and not an energy box);
3) When drawing a food web, arrows point in the direction that energy flows;
4) When one member of a food web is disturbed, the whole food web feels it.

Home/School Connection Station: For homework tonight, you are to write a one
page paper on an instance that you know of where human activities have
negatively impacted an ecosystem. You need to include the ecosystem, the
activity that altered the ecosystem, which part of the ecosystem was initially
impacted, and the results of the initial impact. Make sure to include specific
organisms that are involved within the ecosystem. Along with the paper, create a
food web that includes the organisms from the ecosystem that you wrote about.
Connect it and draw the arrows to indicate which way energy is flowing
throughout the food web.

Independent activity:
Students will complete a research project. They will choose an ecosystem and construct
a food web involving at least 15 organisms from that particular ecosystem. How they
present their food web will be their choice. However, their presentation must include a
visual, use of technology, a summary over their ecosystem, key points for each organism
on how they provide/consume energy. Along with these necessities the students must
develop three different scenarios in which one part of the food web is disturbed in each
scenario. They will need to explain what would happen to the rest of the food web
because of this disturbance. This project will take course over two weeks. The teacher
will provide research time during class in the computer lab.
Resources:
Morton, J. (n.d.). Energy Pyramids and Food Webs. Retrieved from Project Extremes:
http://cires.colorado.edu/education/outreach/extremes/documents/Morton
%20Food%20Web.pdf