BUILDING ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS

Carolina 25-1011

Price $129.95Belinda Dalke

Objective

To understand how organisms interact

within an ecosystem.

To trace the flow of energy through

trophic levels.

Previous Knowledge

Important terms

Producers/ consumers

Predator/ prey

Food chains/ food webs

Trophic levels/ ecological pyramids

(numbers, mass, and energy)

Concepts

Energy flows through an ecosystem in

one direction and is transferred from one

trophic level to the next.

In order to construct a food web or look

at trophic levels, it is necessary to

determine what each organism

consumes.

Kit Includes (three activities)

Heat transfer kit – used as a

demonstration on how energy is

transferred from one object to another in

the form of heat (first law of thermal

dynamics).

Pyramid worksheet and food calculation table

Students construct daily menu and calculate the

amount of food needed at each trophic level to

sustain them.

Construct a pyramid of biomass showing their weight

gain, the primary consumers and primary producers.

Construct pyramids of mass to scale.

Owl pellet dissection

Use class results to construct a pyramid of

numbers and biomass to determine the amount

of energy the owl gets from eating its prey.

mass of owl (500g)

total mass eaten over life span