Build a marine food web

In this activity, students build their own food web using images of organisms from the marine ecosystem. This activity can be done indoors on paper or outdoors on a tarmac surface using chalk.

By the end of this activity, students should be able to:

• understand the difference between a food chain and a food web

• understand that food webs are made up of producers, consumers and decomposers

• build and revise their own food web to show the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem

• understand the potential impact of the removal or reduction of one species on the rest of the food web.

Marine trophic pyramid

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Food webs throughout the world all have the same basic trophic levels. However, the number and type of species that make up each level varies greatly between different areas and different ecosystems.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

Download the Word file (see link below) for:

• introduction/background notes

• what you need

• what to do

• discussion questions

• possible variations

• student worksheet

• trophic pyramid diagram

• tuna sandwich diagram (transfer of energy)

• organism cards (small)

• organism cards (large).

My kids have been making arrows to add to a poster of a foodweb and are then going to teach the lesson to another group within the class, they love the fact they are teaching others.

Year 5/6 teacher