Energy Flow in a Wetland Ecosystem

How is energy transferred within an ecosystem? What would happen to a food web if one of the organisms was removed? Elementary or middle school ecologists examine these questions and more in a comprehensive 5E learning cycle instructional activity. Through stories, games, a card sort, and a writing assignment, young scientists learn the essential components of food webs in a fun and interesting way. Although most of the links within the instructional activity are no longer active, many of the necessary resources are included in the appendix. In order to build learner anticipation and reduce your preparation time, each student could be assigned one of the animals in the food web game to research, then create a card for the game; cards could be made a day or two before teaching the instructional activity. Depending on the age of your learners, you may wish to adjust the writing prompt at the end to address some higher-level thinking concepts.