Interpreting food webs can be overwhelming for many students. Over the years, I found a few strategies that work well with students needing extra assistance and I’d love to share them with you!
1. Walking Food Web
Students actually MOVE through a food web and see how energy flows. It’s important to know that food webs show how energy flows, not who eats what.
Students each represent a unit of energy. Where did they come from before arriving at the phytoplankton? Allow students to take any path they choose as long as they follow the arrows. Along the way, students record where they went. Then, students write about how energy was transferred.
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2. Snack Food Food Web
This was such a fun activity to engage students! Students placed the corresponding snack food in the box on the printable. Then, we drew arrows to show how energy moved through the food web. Then, we labeled everything as P for producer, C for consumer, or D for decomposer. This is such an important step before interpreting a food web. Here are some ideas to extend the activity and increase the rigor.
Ideas to Extend:
- List all of the organisms that consume producers.
- List all of the organisms that eat consumers.
- Make a table of consumers, producers, and decomposers.
- Classify consumers as herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores.
- Make individual food chains using the organisms from the food web.
- Describe the flow of energy.
- Predict how changes to one species will impact the rest of the food web.
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3. Guided Activities with Teaching Slides
This life science bundle is PACKED with all the printables and teaching slides you need to explicitly teach students how to interpret food webs. Students will work in teams and independently as you teach! All of my tips and tricks are included to help students walk away as experts!
Check it out on TpT! See the Owls Unit or the full bundle of life science lessons.
4. Food Webs Observation Stations
Yes, yes, yes! The class period I spend on this activity is a game-changer. The student recording sheets ask students to analyze roles, make predictions, form individual food chains from the food web, describe energy flow, and identify direct transfers of energy. I used language similar to what students will see on 5th Grade Science STAAR.
Check it out on TpT! See Food Webs Observation Stations or the Life Science Observation Stations Bundle.
5. Food Webs Test Prep Task Cards
These are not your average glance-and-answer questions. There are 20 multiple choice task cards that ask students to show their understanding of food webs and ecosystem interactions. These rigorous questions require students to analyze and interpret information to construct reasonable explanations.
Check it out on TpT! See Food Webs Task Cards or the test prep task cards bundle!
Best of luck teaching your students how to interpret food webs! I hope these resources make your job easier and much more fun!
Standards
TEKS 4.9B describe the flow of energy through food webs, beginning with the Sun, and predict how changes in the ecosystem affect the food web
TEKS 5.9B describe the flow of energy within a food web, including the roles of the Sun, producers, consumers, and decomposers
NGSS 5-PS3-1 Use models to describe that that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun
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