From Animal Waste to Human Waist


Key Concepts

  • As we move up the food chain the energy being transferred decreases
  • The larger the animal the more inefficient they are at pulling energy from organic material
  • The organic waste of animals is a ‘food / energy’ source for other organism

Teacher Resources & Lesson Ideas

Website provides easy to read graphics for the percentage of energy being transferred by producers and consumers.
http://www.saburchill.com/ans02/chapters/chap017.html

Narrative explaining how maggots are rich in protein because they feed on waste.
http://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/awpgz/protein_black_soldier_fly/

Forging a new food chain as black soldier flies eat manure and are then turned into food for livestock.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-66529454.html

Black soldier flies (maggots) in your manure compost
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/

Earthworms use manure as a food source
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1876&from=rss

Black soldier fly grubs being feed to fish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPFMmQjV33w

Toads eating fly grubs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RYykLqKy5c

You Tube - Thousands of restaurants in San Francisco are donating their leftover food products to local farms in order to create compost for growing produce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96cgF751_CY&feature=related

History of the domestication of Chickens – a kids website
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/economy/chicken.htm
 
Chickens compete little with humans for food, produce meat at low cost, and are a nutritional resource
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1831&page=79

Cow Power – Suggested activities for this episode are on page 10 of this PDF document. Activities 2 and 3 should be used with the other Down and Dirty Science episodes “Gas from Biomass: from Poop to Power” and “Cooking with Compost”.
http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/thenews/materials/cowlp.pdf

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 intake 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

Student Misconceptions

Students may lump together all types of manure thinking that all manure is the same. They need to realize that the waste of herbivores contains far more organic material than the waste from carnivores.

Not all animal waste, manure, is good for all types of composting.

Student Prior Knowledge

Life cycle of insects, compost and composting, nutrients, food web, & energy transfer for plants to animals.

Assessment Strategies

Here are a number of strategies and activities you might use to help uncover student misconceptions, the level of student learning and areas students might need further instruction.

Pre-Assessment

Teachers can enter into discussion with their student through a think/pair/share activity prior to viewing From Animal Waste to Human Waist.
Ask questions like:

  • What are some of the uses for horse manure?
  • If compost is suggested, ask them what they know about compost piles. Why does it get hot? What happens in a compost pile? (reference episode Cooking with Compost to go further into this discussion).
  • Can manure be used as a food source? How and why?
  • What about the waste of other animals? Can all animal waste be used a food source?

Pre-Assessment and Post-Assessment Activities

Pre-Assessment Question:  How/Why is animal manure important as a food source and in food production?
(Teachers:  Look for an understanding of using manure as a fertilizer.  Materials that are present in manure can enrich the soil, thus allowing plants to grow.  In addition, look for less common uses of manure that will be discussed in this episode, such as using manure as a food source for grubs that can then be used as food for humans or as food for chickens.)

Post-Assessment Question:  How is animal manure important as a food source and in food production?
(Teachers:  Look for evidence that the students have an understanding of manure as a food source for grubs that can be used directly as a food source for humans and as a food source for chickens.)

Pre-Assessment and Embedded Assessment Activity

Give One, Get One Instructions

Give One, Get One is a strategy to help students look for details.  The tables are passed out to the students before the video is shown.  As the students watch the video, they need to fill in three boxes with information from the video.  At the conclusion of the video, the students get up from their seats and fill in the remaining boxes with information that has not yet been recorded on the table.  Each classmate may add only one fact to another classmate’s table, but may add facts to as many tables as they wish.  At the conclusion of the activity, the students should have a good collection of the facts found in the video.

Give One, Get One Worksheet

Embedded Assessment:

Have students do the activities found on this web link, Energy Transfer and Efficiency to calculate the amount of energy being transferred.(http://www.biologyguide.net/bya5/bya5-14-7.htm )

  • 2% of light energy is converted to chemical P.E. by photosynthesis
  • Rest is lost through reflection from leaves / heat loss / not all wavelengths are utilized / light strikes non-photosynthetic structure
  • 10% of that are passed on along trophic levels
  • Rest is lost in respiration / as heat/feces/urine

Have your students use the web resources to:

  1. Find a recipe that uses grubs as an ingredient.  Copy the recipe (remember to site your source!) and explain why or why not you would use this recipe.
  2. Find a site where you can buy grubs over the Internet.  Compare the price to a pound of meat that you might buy in a local grocery store.  How does the price compare to vegetarian protein sources, such as tofu?

Post- Assessment:

CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE QUESTIONS:

Support this statement, using evidence from the video:  "Cow pastures and horse stables are gold mines of nutrients." 

SCORING:

4 points:  The answer will contain at least 4 of the following: Manure found in cow pastures and horse stables can be returned to the soil as fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen; manure can be a source of nourishment for earthworms and grubs; earthworms and grubs may be eaten by other animals, such as raccoons and birds; earthworms and grubs can be fed to animals that humans might use as food, such as chickens; grubs can be eaten directly by humans.

3 points: The answer will contain at least 3 points from the above list.

2 points:  The answer will contain at least 2 points from the above list.

1 point:  The answer will contain at least 1 point from the above list.

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS:

1.  Animal manure can be used to produce food for humans.  Which of the following is a way to use animal manure in food production?
            a.  Manure can be used as fertilizers for plants.
            b.  Manure can provide a good environment for earthworms that enrich the soil.
            c.  Manure can be a food supply for insects that are eaten by humans.
            d.  Manure can be used as described in choices a, b, and c.

2.  Grubs are animals that are involved in many different food webs.  What are grubs?
            a.  Grubs are worms that live in the soil.
            b.  Grubs are the larval forms of beetles.
            c.  Grubs are bacteria that decompose dead animals.
            d.  Grubs are microscopic organisms that decompose animal waste.

3.  Grubs contribute to food webs in a variety of ways.  Which of the following is a true?
            a.  Grubs decompose dead animals to release nutrients into the soil.
            b.  Grubs store water that can be used for plant growth.
            c.  Grubs can be eaten by many different animals, transferring energy to the next level of the food web.
            d.  Grubs release protein into the soil that helps fertilize plants.

ANSWERS:  1D, 2B, 3C

Origami Answer Sheet for Students

Standards

Science and Mathematics Academic Content Standards
Benchmarks - Grade Level Indicators Addressed in Video and Related Activities:

 

Grade 7 Life Science Standards:  Diversity and Interdependence of Life

Benchmark C

Explain how energy entering the ecosystems as sunlight supports the life of organisms through photosynthesis and the transfer of energy through the interactions of organisms and the environment.

Grade Level Indicators 2, 3, 4, 6, 7

2. Investigate how organisms or populations may interact with one another through symbiotic relationships and how some species have become so adapted to each other that neither could survive without the other (e.g., predator-prey, parasitism).

3. Explain how the number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on adequate biotic (living) resources (e.g., plants, animals) and abiotic (non-living) resources (e.g., light, water, soil).

4. Investigate how overpopulation impacts an ecosystem.

6. Summarize the ways that natural occurrences and human activity affect the transfer of energy in Earth's ecosystems (e.g., fire, hurricanes, roads, oil spills).

7. Explain that photosynthetic cells convert solar energy into chemical energy that is used to carry on life functions or is transferred to consumers and used to carry on their life functions.

Grade 7 Mathematics Standards: Patterns, functions and Algebra

Students use patterns, relations and functions to model, represent and analyze problem situations that involve variable quantities. Students analyze, model and solve problems using various representations such as tables, graphs and equations.

Benchmark F

Use representations, such as tables, graphs and equations, to model situations and to solve problems, especially those that involve linear relationships.

Grade Level Indicators 1

1.Represent and analyze patterns, rules and functions with words, tables, graphs and simple variable expressions.

Grade 7 Mathematics Standards: Data Analysis and Probability

Students pose questions and collect, organize, represent, interpret and analyze data to answer those questions. Students develop and evaluate inferences, predictions and arguments that are based on data.

Benchmark E

Collect, organize, display and interpret data for a specific purpose or need.

Grade Level Indicators 4 and 5

4. Construct opposing arguments based on analysis of the same data, using different graphical representations.

5. Compare data from two or more samples to determine how sample selection and influence results.

Science and Mathematics Standards
Addressed through Suggested Teacher Interaction with Students

 

Science and Technology

Students should recognize that science and technology are interconnected and that using technology involves assessment of the benefits, risks, and costs. Students should build scientific and technological knowledge, as well as the skill required to design and construct devices. In addition, they should develop the processes to solve problems and to understand that problems may be solved in several ways.

Scientific Inquiry

Students develop scientific habits of mind as they use the processes of scientific inquiry to ask valid questions, and to gather and analyze information. They understand how to develop hypotheses and make predictions. They are able to reflect on scientific practices as they develop plans of action to create and evaluate a variety of conclusions. Students are also able to demonstrate the ability to communicate their findings to others.

Scientific Ways of Knowing

Students realize that the current body of scientific knowledge must be based on evidence, be predictive, logical, subject to modification, and limited to the natural world. This includes demonstrating an understanding that scientific knowledge grows and advances as new evidence, is discovered to support or modify existing theories, as well as to encourage the development of new theories. Students are able to reflect on ethical scientific practices and demonstrate an understanding of how the current body of scientific knowledge reflects the historical and cultural contributions of women and men who provide us with a more reliable and comprehensive understanding of the natural world.

Mathematical Processes

Students use mathematical processes and knowledge to solve problems. Students apply problem-solving and decision-making techniques, and communicate mathematical ideas.

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