My Science Box

Sources
The idea for the food chain card game came from Project WILD's book Alaska Ecology available for purchase online for $22. Debbie Breeding's activity Food Chains and Webs provided the information and pictures for the food chain cards. The illustrations on the activity pages are by Paula McKenzie, copied from Mountains to the Sea- A Visitor's Guide to the Santa Monica Mountains and Seashore. Another web resource that provides a similar activity is available from the British Ecological Society. Some of the illustrations on the activity pages are copied from the food chain cards available on their site.

Standards
Grade 6 Ecology (Life Sciences)

5. Organisms in ecosystems exchange energy and nutrients among themselves and with the environment. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis and then from organism to organism through food webs.

b. Students know matter is transferred over time from one organism to others in the food web and between organisms and the physical environment.

c. Students know populations of organisms can be categorized by the functions they serve in an ecosystem.

e. Students know the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and on abiotic factors, such as quantities of light and water, a range of temperatures, and soil composition.