Patricia Levy

August 9, 2000

Topic: A Food Web

Context: Seward Park High School, Manhattan on the Lower East Side. I chose this lesson to see if the students are aware of interrelationships between plants and different animals.

Key Idea: 6 – Plants and animals depend on each other and their physical environment.

Performance Indicator: 6.1

Major Understanding: 6.1c

Classroom Environment: The class will work in groups of 2 to do this activity.

Assessing Students’ Prior Knowledge: As a "Do Now" question, I will ask to students to explain the relationship between a rabbit and a mountain lion.

Motivation: I will distribute the "Organisms for a Food Web" worksheet and ask them to give some information about the organisms on the sheet.

Introduction of Understanding: I will ask the students to explain the concepts of producer, primary consumer and secondary consumer.

Development of Understanding: Each group of two students will cut around each organism on the sheet and arrange them on colored paper which has been folded into three parts and labeled, "producer", "primary consumer" and "secondary consumer" at the top.

When they are satisfied with the arrangement of their organisms, they will glue them in place and draw arrows between the different organisms to show what eats what.

Check Points: The students will write an explanation of their Food Web and hang it up so it can be compared to those of the rest of the class.

Further Development of Understanding: We can discuss food webs in Manhattan where there is limited wild life (except for the human kind).

Environmental Science, Bernstein and Winkler, Addison-Wesley

The Living Environment, Rick Hallman, Amsco

Go to  Lesson 1-Acid Rain Lesson

Go To Lesson 3-Fossils