Food Web

 I’m fielding questions from parents as we get ready for Co-op classes.  Let me address food webs.  My summer assignment is a list of 100 Virginia species.  This list is modified; kids research the scientific names and eventually create detailed food webs.

The kids are creating lists on spreadsheets.  Many have started to add the scientific names, too.  The first day of class we’re dissecting owl pellets.  We use the results to create spreadsheets and learn how to make food webs. Rob explains the basics about spreadsheets. I held kids modify their lists.  They can add columns for producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, etc.  Additionally, they can add diet notes.  For example, bats eat their weight in mosquitoes.  This information is key to creating food webs.  The owl pellet dissection is a mini-version of the food web process.  Here  is a lab guide with a bone chart. Here is a bone sorting chart I use.  

We’ll use their data and a little research to create a food web.  (LBBs are ‘little brown birds’.)  

This activity is usually enough to help kids understand the relationship between an animal’s diet and the trophic(feeding) levels in a food web.   I haven’t found a good source for owl pellets.  I paid over $40 for this lab because I have a larger class this year.