Flow+of+Energy

From Mark Ewoldson I have a Owl pellet lab that addresses food webs. See []

From: Claire Salier-Hellendag I give my kids a bunch of plastic animals and plants (and pictures of bacteria, fungi, and a few other autotrophs). They use chalk (I have black lab tables) and arrange them into a food web. They all walk around checking eachother's work and that's that. Most of my kids remember this from biology (they don't remember much else).

We also do the 10% rule at the same time. I have three or four line up (autotroph, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer). I play the role of the sun. I get a large beaker full of sand. This is all of my energy. Each person gets a plastic beaker. I pour my sand into the producers (i make sure to dump most of it on the floor). We discuss the spilled sand in terms of energy. They tell me how much the autotroph gets. The autotroph pours theirs into the primary consumers. They spill a bunch etc etc.

The floors are always a mess afterwards, watch for slipping.