Wonderful Wetlands Activities: Lunch Anyone?

Lunch Anyone?

Purpose:

Students will be able to take a more global look at how so many of the things that we use every day are interrelated in many different ways. They will be able to create a sandwich flow chart that can bee turned into a food web.

Objectives:

As a result of this activity, the student will:

1. Collect and examine data on ingredients in a sandwich.

2. Create a flowchart of where the ingredients in their sandwich originated along the food chain.

Materials:

Ham

Cheese

Bread

Lettuce

Mayonnaise or Salad Dressing

Paper plates

plastic knives

List of ingredients of each of the edible items above.

TEKS: 3.1A 3.2A thru E 4.1A,B 4.2A thruE

Procedure:

1. Have each student make a ham and cheese sandwich. Before they eat it they must list all the ingredients they used in their sandwich across the top of a piece of paper.

2. Place a list of the components of each of the items in the sandwich on a overhead. Have the students read the ingredients and decide which one is the primary ingredient of each of the components in their sandwich.

3. Lead a discussion with the students, breaking down each component to its most fundamental source. Example: Ham comes from pigs which eat grain, which grows in the soil.

4. Have the students create a flow chart tracing the food chain of each component of their sandwich.

5. Discuss what would happen if one of the links in the food chain no longer existed.

6. Allow the students to eat their sandwiches as they complete their food chains.

Questions:

1. What would happen if there were no water or soil for plants?

2. Is there any food that does not fall into some type of food chain?

3. How are parts of our ecosystem connected to each other?

4. What are consumers and producers?

5. What are we, consumers or producers?

Extension:

Have the students stand in a circle with their left shoulders inside the circle. Have them get as close to each other as possible. On the count of three all of the students sit down on the knees of the person behind them. Go around and tap three or four children on the shoulder and tell them that this time on the count of three they need to get out of the circle. Once they do this the circle will collapse. Draw an analogy to the importance of every element in a food web and how the disturbance of one of the components will destroy the whole web.

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