Food Chain Tag
Topics: Ecosystems Fish Food webs Population Studies Predator and Prey
Skills: Compare and Contrast Data Collection Modeling Questioning
Grade Levels: Grades 3-5
Resource Types: Kits
In this active role-playing lesson, students discover how energy flows and is transferred between the interdependent organisms of an ecosystem by assuming various roles (minnows, perch, northern pike, bacteria, and anglers) in an aquatic food chain. Each species feeds on plankton— or on one another—to obtain the food that provides the needed energy for survival in the lake. Decomposers break down dead plants and animals, recycling nutrients. In successive rounds of Food Chain Tag, new species a reintroduced and population ratios altered in an effort to balance the simulated ecosystem.
View and download the lesson plan here.
Credit: MN DNR MinnAqua Program
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