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Constructing Sonoran Desert Food Chains and Food Webs

This lesson develops awareness of how complex food webs are more dynamic and healthier than small food webs constructed from only a minimal number of species and links.  Students should develop multiple food chains from which a large, multi-linked food chain can be built. Students construct six food chains from a list of provided and then connect them into a food web.

Weblink address (URL): 
Constructing Sonoran Desert Food Chains and Food Webs

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives: 

Learning Objectives:

After this activity, students should be able to:

  • Understand how to construct a food chain.
  • Understand how to construct a food web.
  • Develop a deeper understanding for how a community's health is dependent upon the species and type of species that live there.

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Understanding

Helpful Hints

Materials:

Species List Handout, one per student

  • Internet access for research, for all students
  • large sheets of drawing paper
  • reference books for researching these desert species; suggested titles:
  • House in the Sun: A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert by George Olin
  • A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert by Steven J. Phillips (editor), Patricia Wentworth Comus (editor)
  • Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum Book of Answers by David Wentworth Lazaroff

References

Contributors: 
Virginia Cooter
Originator: 
Ayers Institute for Learning & Innovation