MAKE YOUR OWN SEAGRASS FOOD WEB!
Students will learn about the different roles in a food web (producer, consumer, and so on) and the transfer of energy through the food web. The lesson can begin with an overview of trophic levels and roles, as well as a quick description of how seagrass and algae are different. There is a bank of different plants and animals that can be cut out and pasted on the food web in the appropriate location, and arrows should be added to indicate energy transfer. Students can also draw in their own plants and animals.
Instructions for seagrass food web activity:
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Fill in all of the boxes with pictures, either drawn or cut out and pasted.
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Draw arrows between the herbivores and carnivores. The arrow should point toward the carnivore because the energy is flowing from the herbivore into the carnivore.
To make this section more complex, students can simulate a trophic cascade by changing the abundance of one trophic level and seeing how this change might affect the other trophic levels. The learning objectives for younger children include comparing plants and animals as well as understanding how the different plants and animals interact, while the learning objective for older children include understanding how energy flows within the food web and visually demonstrating how changes in one trophic level can influence many other trophic levels.
A handout with all definitions and instructions, the food web outline, and photos that can be used to fill out the food web are all attached below.
YARN ACTIVITY: IDENTIFYING COMPLEX INTERACTIONS WITHIN ECOSYSTEMS
The goal of this activity is to demonstrate the complexity of an ecosystem and the interdependence of all of the organisms in a food web.
Instructions:
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Pass out cards with plants and animals from seagrass ecosystems.
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Stand in a large circle.
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The Sun starts with a ball of yarn.
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Students pass the yarn to other students in the circle, saying how their cards are connected in the ecosystem.
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After the web is completed, everyone with an herbivore can gently tug on the yarn and anyone who feels the tug can also gently tug to demonstrate the interdependence.
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Then, the producers can also drop the yarn to visualize how the web unravels when they are removed.
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The end! Set down the yarn and collect the yarn.
Rules:
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Do not only pass the yarn to people next to you.
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People can have the yarn more than once.
I have attached the template that I used to make cards for this activity. I included hints on the card about what the organisms eat and are eaten by, but this can be removed if desired.
SEAGRASS EPIFAUNA ACTIVITY: EXPLORING THE ANIMALS THAT LIVE IN SEAGRASS
In this activity, students sort and count the small invertebrate animals that live in seagrass beds. This activity is based on work that is frequently conducted by seagrass scientists, so it can be appropriate for familiarizing students with the scientific method. Students can design their own experiment, formulate research objectives and hypotheses, and collect / analyze the data.
This activity requires teachers to collect or have access to invertebrate samples from coastal ecosystems (e.g. seagrass beds, algae, or bare sediment). It would also be possible to adapt the activity and use samples from a freshwater ecosystems or provide students with fake data. Feel free to email me (jroth2@ufl.edu) if you have any questions about collecting and preparing samples.