Food Web Activity

Create groups based on the number of food-web card sets that you have made.

Distribute the food-web cards and information sheets to each group.

On day 1, have the groups:

-         record whether or not an organism is a producer, consumer (carnivore, herbivore, omnivore), scavenger, or decomposer

-         make as many kinds of food-chains as they can. Have them record these chains on a piece of paper

-         share their findings with the class

On day 2, have the groups

-         create a food-web, showing the interrelationships between all of the organims; they must draw arrowed-lines with the arrow in the proper direction (i.e., not in the direction of eating, but energy)

-         share their findings with the class

A Forest Food Web (Land)*

Badger: small mammal that eats earthworms and beetles

Beetles: insect that eats dead things

Crossbill: small bird that eats plants and insects

Earthworms: an insect that eats dead things

Lynx: large mammal that eats mice, weasels, rabbits, and other small animals

Mouse: small mammal that eats ants and various other insects

Mushroom and other fungi: organisms that eat dead things

Owl: large bird that eats squirrels and other small animals

Plants: an organism that gets its nutrients from the soil and sun

Rabbit: small mammal that eats plants

Raven: large bird that eats squirrels, other small animal, and dead animal matter

Slimes and molds: small organisms that get their food energy from dead material

Squirrel: small mammal that eats plants

Weasel: small mammal that eats mice

Wolf: large mammal that eats rabbits, squirrels, and other small animals

A Coral Reef Food Web (Water)*

Barracuda: large fish that eats pufferfish, and other smaller fish

Butterfish: small fish that eats polyps

Damselfish: small fish that eats polyps and plants

Lobster: aquatic animal that eats dead zooplankton and other dead material

Moray Eel: aquatic orgamism that eats parrotfish and other fish

Parrotfish: small fish that eats polyps and plants

Polyps: very small animals that eat zooplankton. The dead bodies of these animals make up the coral reef

Phytoplankton: microscopic organisms that get their food energy from the sun

Pufferfish: small fish that eats polyps

Shark: large fish that eats damselfish, butterfish, pufferfish, squid, and many other kinds of large sea organisms

Sponge: aquatic animal that eats zooplankton

Squid: large aquatic organism that eats pufferfish, and a variety of other fish

Zooplankton: microscopic animals that eat phytoplankton

Arctic Food Web (Land and Water)*

Artic Cod: fish that eats krill and small fish

Arctic Fox: medium-sized mammal that eats caribou, lemmings, and other animals

Arctic Hare: small mammal that eats plants

Arctic Loons: birds that eat zooplankton

Arctic Terns: birds that eat zooplankton

Arctic Wolf: large mammal that eats caribou, lemmings, and other animals

Bearded Seal: large sea mammal that eats arctic cod and seabed life

Beluga Whale: large sea mammal that eats arctic cod, and small fish

Bowhead Whale: large sea mammal that eats krill

Caribou: large mammal that eats plants

Guillemot: birds that eat zooplankton and small fish

Krill: small aquatic animal that eats zooplankton

Lemming: small mammal that eats plants

Musk Ox: large mammal that eats plants

Phytoplankton: microscopic plants that get their food energy from the sun

Plants: organisms that get their food energy from the sun

Polar Bear: large mammal that eats seals and fish

Ptarmigan: small bird that eats plants

Raven: large bird that eats dead animal material

Seabed life: such as clams, sea stars, mussels, and urchins that eat other forms of seabed life, zooplankton, and phytoplankton

Seals: large mammal that arctic cod and other fish

Snowy Owl: large bird that eats rabbits and other small animals

Walrus: large mammal that eats seabed life

Zooplankton: microscopic sea animals that eat phytoplankton

Antarctic Food Web (Land and Water)*

Adelie Penguin: bird that eats zooplankton, krill, and carnivorous plankton

Blue Whale: very large aquatic mammal that eats krill and phytoplankton

Carnivorous plankton: microscopic aquatic organism that eats herbivorous zooplankton and krill

Crabeater Seal: large mammal that eats krill

Elephant Seal: large mammal that eats squid

Emporer Penguin: bird that eats squid and fish

Fish: eat zooplankton, carnivorous plankton, and krill

Herbivorous zooplankton: microscopic aquatic animal that eats phytoplankton

Killer Whale: very large aquatic mammal that eats whales, seals, penguins, and squid

Krill: aquatic animal that eats phytoplankton, and herbivorous zooplankton

Leopard Seal: large mammal that eats seals, penguins, and krill

Petrel: bird that eats krill

Phytoplankton: microscopic aquatic plant that eats the sun

Sperm Whale: very large aquatic mammal that eats squid

Squid: aquatic animal that eats zooplankton, krill, and carnivorous plankton

Savannah Food Web (Land)

Antelope: large mammal that eats grass

Cheetah: large mammal that eats gazelles, antelope, and other large animals

Earthworms and beetles: organisms that feed on dead material

Gerenuk: large mammal that eats grass, and the leaves of trees

Giraffe: large mammal that eats grass, and the leaves of acacia trees

Hyenas: medium-sized mammal that eats antelope, zebras, and other small and large animals, as well as dead animal material

Leopard: large mammal that eats zebras, wildebeests, and other large and small animals

Lion: large mammal that eats antelopes, wildebeests, and other large animals

Ostrich: large birds that eat grass, fruit, seeds, insects, and small animals

Plants: organisms that get their energy from the sun

Vulture: large birds that eat dead animals

Wildebeests: large mammal that eats grass

Zebra: large mammal that eats grass

Freshwater Wetland

Annelid worms: small animals that eat dead material

Aquatic plants: plants that get their food energy from the sun

Carp: fish that eats crustaceans, stickleback, annelid worms, mollusks, and aquatic plants

Crustacean: a type of arthropod (animal with an exoskeleton) that eats dead material

Detritus: dead material

Duck: bird that eats mollusks, aquatic plants, and insect larvae

Frog: amphibian that eats water beetles, insect larvae, and annelid worms

Heron: large bird that eats carp, perch, and frogs

Insect larvae: insect babies that eat zooplankton, and aquatic plants

Mollusks: aquatic animal that eats dead material, and aquatic plants

Perch: fish that eats mollusks, water beetles, and insect larvae

Plant plankton: microscopic plants that get their food energy from the sun

Pike: large fish that eats frogs, perch, carp, and stickleback fish

Stickleback: small fish that eats crustaceans, annelid worms, and insect larvae

Water beetle: insect that eats insect larvae, and dead material

Zooplankton: microscopic organisms that eat plant plankton and dead material

Meadow Food Web (Land)

Bee: insect that eats the nectar from flowers

Beetle: insect that eats dead things

Blue Jay: bird that eats fruit, insects, grains, acorns, and sometimes the eggs and babies of other birds

Butterfly: insect that eats plants

Fox: mammal that eats rabbits, mice, wild birds, poultry insects, plants

Grass: small plants that get their food energy from the sun

Grasshopper: insect that eats plants, primarily grass

Hawk: large bird that eats mice, rabbits, snakes, and other small animals

Mouse: small mammal that eats ants and various other insects

Owl: large bird that eats mice, rabbits, and other small animals

Rabbit: small mammal that eats plants

Shrubs: small tree-like plants that get their food energy from the sun

Snakes: legless reptile that eats mice, rabbits, and other small animals

Wildflower: small plants that get their food energy from the sun

Woodchuck: mammal that eats leaves, flowers, seeds, corn, apples, bark, insects, snails, young birds and eggs