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Description
Students examine decomposition processes in a package of leaves placed in a stream or pond. This lesson extends the exploration of energy flow in ecosystems. Students learn to identify species of invertebrate decomposers and they observe the conversion of matter and energy from dead to living organisms. They discuss what happens to the leaf tissue after the invertebrates and bacteria do their work. Where does the energy go? Where does the matter go? To relate these ideas to earlier concepts, students build a new food web, including decomposers. They learn about trophic levels and identify them in their food web.
General Assessment
What skills does this resource explicitly teach?
The activity focuses on those skills associated with the scientific method:
- formulating a hypothesis
- identifying the variables
- controlling for variables
- conducting experiment
- analyzing data and articulating conclusions.
Strengths
Students will be able to
- identify orders and families of some invertebrates that decompose plant material in a stream.
- create an aquatic food web, correctly placing arrows to show the direction of the flow of energy.
- design a repeatable experiment, include replicates and identify manipulated/independent, responding/dependent and controlled variables.
Recommendation of how and where to use it
A Leaf Lunch provides a practical case study for those units of study that explore energy flow in ecosystems. It may also be used to introduce students to the steps in the scientific method.
Relevant Curriculum Units
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
- Step 1Select a province
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 10
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Energy is conserved and its transformation can affect living things and the environment
- Grade 11
- Step 3Select a subject
- Environmental Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Environmental Science 11: Changing ecosystems are maintained by natural processes.
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Specialized Science 12: Biodiversity is dependent on the complex interactions and processes between biotic and abiotic factors
- Specialized Science 12: Energy is always conserved.
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland & Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Nova Scotia
- Nunavut
- Ontario
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 11
- Step 3Select a subject
- Biology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Biology 11(College Prep.) Plants in the Natural Environment
- Biology 11(Univer.Prep.) Diversity of Living Things
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Biology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Biology 12 (Univ. Prep.): Population Dynamics
- Prince Edward Island
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 11
- Step 3Select a subject
- Biology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Biology 521A: Biodiversity
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Environmental Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Environmental Science 621A: Ecological Principles
- Quebec
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 10
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Applied Science & Technology:The Living World
- Environmental Science & Technology: The Living World
- Science & Technology:The Living World
- Yukon Territory
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 10
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Energy is conserved and its transformation can affect living things and the environment
- Grade 11
- Step 3Select a subject
- Environmental Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Environmental Science 11: Changing ecosystems are maintained by natural processes.
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Specialized Science 12: Biodiversity is dependent on the complex interactions and processes between biotic and abiotic factors
- Specialized Science 12: Energy is always conserved.
Themes Addressed
Ecosystems (3)
- Appreciating the Natural World
- Biodiversity
- Interdependence
