Teacher Resources & Lesson Ideas

Basic information about energy flow through the ecosystem – easy read. Could be used as a resource for students or an assignment for students.
http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/wcee/keep/Mod1/Flow/foodchains.htm

Background information and chemical composition of carbohydrates
http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=61

Background information on the importance of insects for energy transfer: a teacher web site on the importance of insects for the transfer of energy through the ecosystem
http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2002/03/030402t_insects.jhtml

Bugs in the food chain - Alternative approaches to the transferring of energy through the food chain
http://museumvictoria.com.au/bugs/foodchains/predation.aspx

Edible Insects – overview of insects as food from the University of Kentucky
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/bugconnection/edible/edible.htm

Insects as food for humans: background resource on the nutritional value of insects with suggestions on how they could be included in our diet.
http://www.manataka.org/page160.html

Edible bugs - Many cultures around the world value insects as a food source
http://webecoist.com/2009/07/07/eco-friendly-protein-edible-bugs/

Lesson idea for creating an ecosystem with insects
http://iitc.tamu.edu/1998and2000/lessons/lesson31.html

Insects As Carnivores

Praying Mantis capturing a humming bird
http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/backyardbirds/hummingbirds/mantis-hummer.aspx

Meat eating bees
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/carnivorous-bees/

Plants As Carnivores

Carnivorous Plants – everything you wanted to know and more – over 600 carnivorous plants have been identified.
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

Carnivorous Plants – web site presents carnivorous plants by Kingdom and Family with colored pictures of each plant.
http://www.botany.org/Carnivorous_Plants/

Growing and caring for carnivorous plants
http://mysite.verizon.net/elgecko1989/carnivorous.html

How carnivorous plants capture insects and why are plants carnivorous!
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5270668_do-carnivorous-plants-capture-insects.html

Lesson Plans and Activities on the Food Web

Ohio Resource Center # 555 http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons/scheidemantel/overview.html 
In this unit, the students explore basic ecology concepts and scientific processes using spiders as model organisms. They capture spiders, observe and care for them, and use them to answer their own questions about spider behavior. Modeling the process of a research scientist, each team of students designs and conducts their own experiment. Simultaneously, the class collaborates on joint projects investigating feeding rates of spiders (by pooling individual feeding data) and their importance in controlling the numbers of insects (by conducting a field study on or near school grounds). The unit includes both teacher and student materials. The teacher materials include teaching tips, scheduling time lines, preparation instructions, and resource materials. The student materials include the lab handouts the students will be using in each of their experiments.

Mathematics Connections to Data Analysis, Representations and Communications

Mathematics and energy transfer from food – lesson on nutrition – page 4 has student doing graphs and data analysis for calorie intact from food sources.
http://www.greenscreen.org/articles_teachers/TG%20Global%20Food%20SR.pdf

Teacher demonstration with student interaction on energy transfer through the food web could also be used as an embedded assessment activity.  Energy flow in the ecosystem – simple explanation and class activity teacher can do to help students understand the amount of energy transfer from the sun to plants and the resulting food chain. Use of mathematics (percents and measurements)…
http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/Science/sciber00/8th/energy/sciber/ecosys.htm