Living Things Need Energy Inquiry Activity Lesson Plan Materials: -at least 100 mini marshmallows (or

something small) -ziplock baggies to transfer marshmallows -role cards (number of each depending on class size): producer: phytoplankton [14] primary consumer: zooplankton (herbivores) [7] secondary consumer: krill (omnivores) [3] tertiary consumer: penguin (carnivores) [2] top level consumer: killer whale (carnivore) [1] Site to build your own food web: http://www.gould.edu.au/foodwebs/antarctic.htm Procedures: 1. Students choose a role card from the stack. Once they have their card, have them find the rest of their group in a pre-determined place in the classroom that visually shows a pyramid (all of the producers on the bottom, and smaller amounts of consumers at the top). 2. Choose one person from each group to stand in front of the room and have the rest of the students return to their seats. 3. Pull out the bag of 100 marshmallows. Explain that this is the energy that the producer has created. Its sugar! (connecting concepts from glucose last week) 4. Have the primary consumer come and consume 10 of the marshmallows showing 90 of them left behind. 5. Have the secondary consumer com e and take 1 of the primarys marshmallows. 6. Have the tertiary consumer come and take a piece of the secondarys marshmallow. 7. Have the final consumer eat whatever is left of the marshmallow (if they want to). 8. Think About It Questions (Brief Class Discussion): a. c. Who had the most energy? Why? Why wasnt all of the energy transferred to the last organism? Where did it go? need to eat to have enough energy to survive? e. In many ways, we are top level consumers. Why is that? If we didnt eat other organisms and only ate grasses/algae/or other producers, how much would we need to eat to survive? 9. Following this activity, have students return to their seats and independently answer the questions that follow. After students have had some time to answer the questions to the best of their ability, come back as a whole group and discuss their answers. By the end of the lesson they should come away with these three concepts (taken straight from the Revised Science Standards pg. 214) EXPLAIN: 1) Organisms that eat plants break down plant structures to produce the materials and energy they need to survive. Then they are consumed by other organisms. b. Who had the least energy? Why? d. If the killer whale was a primary consumer, how many of the phytoplankton would it

2) Energy can transform from one form to another in living things. Animals get energy from oxidizing food, releasing some of its energy as heat. 3) The total amount of matter and energy remain constant, even though its form and location change.

Name:_________________________________ Period:____________ Living Things Need Energy Inquiry Activity 1. List 3 observations that you made from this activity. 2. How was the energy transferred from one group of organisms to the next? What did you notice?

3. Which group had the most energy? Why do you think so?

4. Which group had the least amount of energy? Why do you think so?

5. Organize some or all of the organisms from this activity (phytoplankton, zooplankton, krill, penguin, and killer whale) into an energy pyramid. Write the names of the organisms that need to be on the bottom, the middle, and the top, and why you put them in each place on the pyramid below.

6. The activity did not include any decomposers. Where do you think decomposers fit in your energy pyramid? Justify your answer using what you know about decomposers.

7. Why are there only a limited number of some of the organisms? Explain your answer.

8. Does all of the energy from this activity transfer from one organism to the next? Why or why not?

9. The law of conservation of matter and energy states that matter/energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Describe how this law applies to our activity.

CHALLENGE (bonus): Imagine that there were no more producers on Earth. How would that affect how energy is transferred between organisms? What further implications would this cause? Provide justification for your answer.

Name:_________________________________ Period:____________ Living Things Need Energy Inquiry Activity 1. List 2 observations that you made from this activity. 2. Which group had the most energy? Why do you think so? [to start your answer: The group that had the most energy was _________________because]

3. Which group had the least amount of energy? Why do you think so? [to start your answer: The group that had the least energy was__________________because]

4. Organize the organisms from this activity (phytoplankton, zooplankton, krill, penguin, and killer whale) into an energy pyramid. Write the names of the organisms that need to be in each level on the diagram below.

5. The activity did not include any decomposers. Where do you think decomposers fit in your energy pyramid? Justify your answer using what you know about decomposers. [to start your answer: Decomposers would probably go ______________________because]

6. Why are there only a limited number of some of the organisms? (In other words, why is there only 1 killer whale and lots of plankton?) Explain your answer. [to start your answer: There are only a few organisms at the top of the pyramid because...]

7. The law of conservation of matter and energy states that matter/energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Describe how this law applies to our activity. [to start your answer: In this activity, the law applies because...]

phytoplankton phytoplankton phytoplankton

phytoplankton phytoplankton phytoplankton

phytoplankton phytoplankton phytoplankton

phytoplankton phytoplankton phytoplankton

phytoplankton phytoplankton phytoplankton

phytoplankton phytoplankton phytoplankton

zooplankton krill

zooplankton krill

zooplankton krill

zooplankton penguin

zooplankton penguin

zooplankton killer whale