On a Wing and a Prayer
Lesson Introduction
Birds have an important place in the food chain. As seen in the video, On a Wing and a Prayer, they act as a natural control to insect overpopulation. More than that, if we had no birds, other animals in their habitat (definition) like raccoons and black rat snakes which prey upon them and their eggs would be without food. It is clear that without the songbirds, the entire world's food web would be out of balance.
In this lesson, students learn to recognize the sequence of a typical food chain, in which energy is passed from the sun through producers to consumers. By playing an engaging card game, they practice finding an organism's interdependence (definition) in the food chain. Following the game, teachers, students, and parents can visit other web sites to discover more about the songbird's place in the chain.
Grade Level
4 through 10
Objectives
The students will:
1. demonstrate knowledge of the order of the food chain by playing a game.
2. describe what happens when birds are taken out of the chain.
Time Allotment
one 40-minute session
Materials
student journals
pencils or pens
construction paper or 3 x 5 index cards
scissors
video/video player
Books to Read
Amazing Birds, by Alexandra Parsons, New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1990.
Ecology for Every Kid, by Janice VanCleave, New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.
Advanced Preparation and Teacher Notes
Arrange students in groups of 4 or fewer. Prepare a deck of cards for each group, or let students make them prior to playing the game. The set of 48 cards includes:
Procedure
Tap Prior Knowledge
1. Ask the students to draw a simple food chain in their journals. After a few minutes, find out what main elements they included. Do they all begin with the sun or another source of energy? Does the energy pass through different plants and animals?
Share with Neighbor/Revise Ideas
2. To demonstrate the songbird's place in the food chain, show the section of the On a Wing and a Prayer video (from 43 36 to 48 03) which shows them eating caterpillars. Allow students to revise their food chain illustrations in their journals. Discuss their responses. The sun is the main source of energy. It depends on no one to survive. Producers make their own food and most need the sun in order to produce the food they make for themselves. Consumers depend on other consumers (animals) and producers (plants) to survive. Decomposers depend on other dead consumers (animals) and producers (plants) to survive.
Engage Students in a Hands-on Activity
3. Play the "Links in a Chain" card game to reinforce the order of the food chain. Give a deck of cards to each group of students. Instruct them to deal all 48 cards evenly between the students in their group. The cards should not be looked at. When students receive their cards they should turn them face down.
To play the game:
Each student takes his/her first card and places it in the middle of the playing area face up. The student that has the higher card on the food chain has just won the privilege to take that card along with the other players' card(s). Add them to the bottom of his/her deck.
The game continues until one player has taken all of the other players' cards. The object of the game is to have students recognize who is more independent among the participants in the food chain. Encourage students to talk while playing the game. Have them give reasons of why they think they are higher in the food chain and why others depend on them.
Example 1:
Ken- decomposer
Doug- consumer
Meg- producer
Keisha- sun
During this round, Keisha would win because as the sun she is the main source of energy and supports all forms of life according to the food chain.
Example 2:
Ken-decomposer
Doug-producer
Meg-consumer
Keisha-consumer
During this round, there are two players who have the same card, but it really does not matter because Doug has just won this round. His producer is higher on the food chain. Plants do not need consumers or decomposers to survive. They make their own food.
Example3:
Meg-producer
Ken-consumer
Doug-sun
Keisha-sun
In this round, Meg and Ken both lose their cards and Doug and Keisha will challenge each other for the four cards just played. Doug and Keisha will both take four of their cards from their deck and flip the fourth card to see who wins. As they flip their cards over, they say "LINKS - IN - A - CHAIN!"
Whoever has flipped the card that is higher on the food chain gets to take the original cards that were played in the round, plus the four cards just used to break the tie. The cards that are won are placed at the bottom of that player's deck. These cards can be used until there are no more cards. If another identical card is drawn, continue to flip four cards until one player has a card that is higher on the food chain.
While playing the game the amount of cards you have will fluctuate. In the process of playing, students will come to a point where they are challenged with a stand off because other players have dispensed identical cards and they do not have enough cards to flip a fourth card. They are automatically eliminated.
One important note: Remind students that the object of the game is to be the higher species (or the sun) on the food chain, not to eat other animals. There will be a scenario where students will flip a piranha (consumer) and a marigold (plant) and you will have to explain to students that there are cases of piranhas eating plants, but a plant does not need a consumer in order to survive because it is a producer and is higher on the food chain.
Introduce the Scientific Principle/Concept
4. Provide more detail about the relationships in the food chain. All food chains and food webs include the original source of energy, the sun. (Note: Scientists have recently discovered simple life forms at the bottom of the ocean, which get their energy from heat vents coming from the center of the earth.) Plants use the sun as a source of energy. They use solar or radiant energy to modify water and carbon dioxide into their own food. They make the conversion through a process called photosynthesis. Plants manufacture their own food, so they are called producers.
5. Animals are not producers since they must devour other animals or plants to get their energy. Animals that eat plants are called herbivores (plant eaters) or primary consumers. Those that eat other animals are called carnivores (meat eaters) or secondary consumers. Some animals, including humans, that eat both plants and animals, are called omnivores. Finally, to make the web complete, we must talk about decomposers. Decomposers (bacteria, fungi, worms, carrion beetles, and flies) all feed on the remains of plants and animals that have died. Without decomposers, the regeneration of food-web nutrients would be impossible. The web would be nonexistent. Decomposers help recycle and change nutrients, such as nitrogen, so that plants can use them to grow. The web goes on and on around in a cycle.
6. Discuss the difference between a Food Chain and a Food Web. A food chain shows how energy passes from one organism to another. An insect being eaten by a cowbird, for example, is an example of a food chain. A food web is a larger, more complex system. It includes all of the non-living needs as well.
Connect to Other Everyday Examples
7. Pose a question for the students to think about: What would happen if all of the songbirds were taken away? Recall the video in which deforestation is threatening the habitats of songbirds, putting their survival in jeopardy.
Lesson Assessment
8. Draw and illustrate a sample food chain or food web on the computer using draw, paint, or clipart software.
Extension Activities
9. Give students a chance to surf the World Wide Web to learn more about the food chain and how birds fit into their habitats:
