Virtual Science Classroom

Semi- Pro

Watch the video titled, "Food Chains" on Brain Pop.

Complete your notes based on the video.

Once your notes are complete begin creating food webs using this interactive site.

You must complete all three webs (POND, MEADOW, ARCTIC)

Draw the correct food web in your activity packet.

If you find these constructions of webs simple try this last one using this interactive

site.

Don't forget to draw the web in your activity packet!

Newbie

Do Now

Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of biology and the passage below

The Return of the Large Blue Butterfly

In 1979, the Large Blue Butterfly was declared extinct in the United Kingdom, despite the efforts to

protect the grasslands where it lived. Research into the butterfly life cycle discovered the following facts. The butterflies lay their eggs on flowering thyme plants, and the caterpillars fall to the ground after they hatch. The young butterfly caterpillars have a “honey gland” on their posterior end, which, when stimulated by red ants, makes the caterpillars smell and wiggle like red ants. The red ants treat the butterfly caterpillars as ant grubs and carry them to their underground homes. The red ants keep looking after them and guard them, even though the caterpillars eat ant grubs for 10 months before flying away as adult butterflies in the spring.

The red ants live in fields of short grass. The grass is short enough to let the sun warm the soil. This is

where the ants find and eat insects and plants. Rabbits had kept the grass short until the mid-1950s, when the rabbit populations were suddenly devastated by a viral disease. Additionally, farmers allowed pastures to get overgrown by not letting cattle graze on the grass. The red ants vanished when the taller grass increased the shade and cooled the soil.

A program was introduced to protect the pastures where the red ants nested. Their numbers came

back. Populations of Large Blue Butterflies from Sweden were brought into the area, and now the Large Blue Butterfly is thriving again.

In the space below, construct a food chain consisting of at least three organisms, including a producer that would be present in the ant ecosystem.

Select one organism from the food chain you constructed and write it on the line below. State one way the removal of the organism you selected would affect another organism in the food chain. Support your answer.

Organism: ___________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Semi-Pro

Use the worksheet to create a food web using the organisms listed in the table below.

1. Pick a food web

2. State the feeding relationship of each organism

3. Create an appropriate food web that shows the relationship between all the organisms of the web.

Newbie

DoNow

Complete the following questions based on your knowledge of biology and the passage below

1. Autotrophs might survive when heterotrophs cannot, because autotrophs are able to

(1) reproduce asexually

(2) become dormant

(3) exist without respiration

(4) make their own food

Use the food web to answer the following questions:

2. What do the arrows in the diagram represent?

(1) an increase in population     (3) the flow of energy

(2) the evolution of organisms   (4) ecological succession

3. Which statement correctly describes interactions between organisms in this ecosystem?

(1) Hawks are predators of insect-eating birds, but not of seed-eating birds.

(2) Hawks and snakes prey on both rabbits and grasshoppers.

(3) Rabbits and mice compete for both grasses and flower seeds.

(4) Grasshoppers and mice compete for grasses, but not flower seeds.

Semi-Pro

Using the worksheet identify as many food chains in this food web.

What happens to population of organisms when things change within the ecosystem?

What to COMPLETE:

1. Predict what happens to populations when other populations increase or decrease. Make predictions on how these changes affect all the organisms within the food web.

2. Create a graph that represents some of the changes in the ecosystem.