Materials Required:
Bulletin board or large sheet of poster board
Pushpins
Rubber bands
Images or drawings of animals and plants (printed or hand-drawn)
Scissors (for cutting out images)
Tape or glue (optional, for securing images)
Steps Involved:
Introduction: Explain the concept of a food web and how it shows the interconnected relationships between various organisms in an ecosystem. Discuss how different organisms depend on each other for energy.
Preparing the Board: Set up a bulletin board or large poster board. Arrange images of plants and animals across the board to represent different parts of the food web.
Attaching Images: Have students use pushpins to attach the images to the board. Ensure that each image is placed where it can be easily connected to other images.
Connecting with Rubber Bands: Instruct students to use rubber bands to connect the images based on their relationships in the food web. For example, connect herbivores to the plants they eat, and predators to the herbivores they consume.
Exploring Connections: Encourage students to think about how removing one organism might affect the rest of the food web. Discuss these impacts as a class.
Review: Review the completed food web with the class, discussing how the rubber bands represent the flow of energy and the relationships between different organisms. Address any questions and highlight the complexity and interconnectedness of ecosystems.