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Modeling Food Webs in Darién, Panama

Photo of a jaguar

Topic

  • Ecology
  • Communities
  • Matter & Energy
  • Scientific Skills & Literacy
  • Visual & Physical Models

Resource Type

  • Activities
  • Card Activities

Level

High School — GeneralHigh School — AP/IBCollege
Saved By
61 Users
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View in Spanish

Description

In this activity, students use cards to build model food webs and evaluate how ecological disturbances affect each trophic level using information from the citizen science website WildCam Darién.

Students identify producers and consumers in the rainforest ecosystem of Darién National Park in Panama from a curated set of cards of organisms found in the Darién. Students also create food chains to show the flow of energy in the system, introduce an ecological force or disturbance (e.g., logging), and predict how that force would impact animals in the chain. Students then construct a more complex model of the flow of energy by depicting multiple relationships in a food web and again make a prediction about the impact of introducing an ecological force.

The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.

Student Learning Targets

  • Classify organisms based on their roles in the transfer of energy in an ecosystem. 
  • Create a model (e.g., a food chain) showing feeding relationships among organisms. 
  • Evaluate different models that depict relationships among organisms in a community. 
  • Predict how ecological forces or disturbances may impact models and justify claims with evidence. 
     

Estimated Time

Two 50-minute class periods.

Key Terms

carnivore, energy flow, herbivore, omnivore, primary consumer, producer, quaternary consumer, rule of 10 percent, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer

Terms of Use

Please see the Terms of Use for information on how this resource can be used.

Version History

Date Published 12.11.17
Date Updated 03.21.18

NGSS (2013)

HS-LS2-4, HS-LS2-6; SEP2, SEP5, SEP6

AP Biology (2019)

ENE-1.N, ENE-1.O, ENE-4.A, ENE-4.B, SYI-1.G, SYI-1.H, SYI-2.A, SYI-2.B; SP2, SP4

IB Biology (2016)

4.1, 4.2, C.2, C.3

AP Environmental Science (2020)

Topic(s): 1.9, 1.10, 1.11
Learning Objectives & Practices: ENG-1.B, ENG-1.C, ENG-1.D, SP1, SP2, SP4, SP5

IB Environmental Systems and Societies (2017)

2.2, 2.3

Common Core (2010)

ELA.RST.9–12.7, ELA.WHST.9–12.1
Math.N-Q.1; MP1, MP4

Vision and Change (2009)

CC5; DP1, DP2, DP3

Materials

Resource Google Folder (Link)
Student Handout (PDF) 968 KB
Educator Materials (PDF) 919 KB
Double-Sided Cards (English) (PDF) 3 MB
Single-Sided Cards (English) (PDF) 2 MB
Student Handout - Español (PDF) 847 KB
Educator Materials - Español (PDF) 914 KB
Double-Sided Cards (Español) (PDF) 3 MB
Single-Sided Cards (Español) (PDF) 2 MB

Additional Materials

  • one set of Darién cards 
  • large paper (e.g., butcher or flip chart) and markers or pens (or whiteboards and markers) for indicating arrows for energy flow 
     

Use This Resource With

Interactive Media Resource
WildCam Darién

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