Lesson: 8th Grade: Lesson 2 part II “It’s All Connected!”

Objective: TLW… demonstrate how living things obtain the energy needed to live.
TLW… demonstrate knowledge of important vocabulary by taking a
quiz.

Anticipatory Set: “Today we will begin our period with the assessment of the important vocabulary for this week and then finish our lesson on obtaining energy. Who wants to tell us about what they had to eat last night and talk us through the pathway back to the sun?” Allow a student to demonstrate for the class and then have the students pair/share this information at their tables.

Materials:
Vocabulary quiz
Same materials from yesterday’s lesson
Who Eats What in MI sheets

Procedure:
1) Review norms for taking an assessment. Give students the vocabulary
assessment.
2) Collect quizzes. Give only 10 minutes for quiz.
3) Pass journals out. Have students turn to page they left off on.
Guided Practice:
4) Review the concepts of producer, consumer, and decomposer from yesterday. Pass out the DNR posters.
5) Introduce the concept of food chains. “What is the feeding relationship of the organisms on the DNR posters?” Review ecosystem and then introduce the concept of food chain.
6) Pass out yarn, scissors, “Who Eats What in MI” sheets, and tape to each table.
7) Demonstrate how to use the “Who Eats What…” sheets along with the posters. Have students then find their own food chains. Teacher walks around and assists. 5 minutes.
8) Have students share their food chains.
9) Introduce the concept of food webs. “Are there any organisms on your poster that are part of more than one food chain?”
10) Have groups now connect food chains to one another through an organism to demonstrate the concept of a food web.
11) Discuss with students, “What they think would happen if one species in a food chain was eliminated or killed?” Have them pick a species from their poster and discuss it with their table. “What do they think will happen to the populations of the affected species, will they increase or decrease?”
12) Have students clean up posters for the next class.




Closure: “Who can tell me what the difference is between a food chain and a food web?” Students respond. “On Monday, we will have an Energy Flow Scavenger Hunt to demonstrate the concepts of food chains and food webs.”