Explore Activity 4 - Karla Delgado

7/31/2019 Explore Activity 4 - Karla Delgado

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EXPLORE ACTIVITY 4:

What happens to Matter

and Energy in a TropicalRainforest: Nutrient

Cycling, the Food Chainand Food Web


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Designing an Experiment:

Nutrient Cycling:Composting Leaf

Litter


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Objectives:

Students will understand how dry leaves can still

be recycled and be useful for other organisms such

as plants.

Students will be able to make a compost out of leaf

litter and the will be aware of how to make this

organic fertilizer.

Students will observe the decomposition process

and monitor the rate of breakdown.


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Materials:

Carbon materials

(dry leaves- 2 cups, newspaper -1 cup)Nitrogen materials

(grass clippings, food scraps)

Water

Air

Clear 2-Liter plastic bottle with lid

2 cups of garden soil

Clear tapeScissors

Marker

gloves


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Method:

1. Cut around the bottle neck to form a flip top lid (large

enough to pour the ingredients in).

2. Pour 2-3 cm of soil into the bottom of the bottle.

3. Using the spray bottle, moisten the soil.

4. Add 2-3 cm of fruit and vegetable scraps on top of the

soil.

5. Add another 1 cm layer of soil.


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7. Add a layer of leaves and grass.

8. Cover with another 1 cm layer of soil.

9. Lay moist newspaper over the soil.

10. Repeat steps 4-9.

11. Tape the top of the bottle closed.

6. Using gloves, sprinkle with 1/3 of the fertilizer over the

soil.


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13. Place bottles in a sunny spot.

14. Once a week, mark the height of the composton bottle and observe the changes in volume

and rate of decomposition.

11. Mark the top of the compost on the side of

the bottle.


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Results:

During the waiting process, the soil either

gets wet or too dry. If the soil is too dry you can

take the lid of and let it dry. During the times the

soil is dry we spray it with little water to moistenit. After 2-3 months the height of the soil

together with the compost became lower than

the original height, the leaf mulch has becomepowder and there are healthy earthworms

growing in the compost.


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Conclusions:

In this activity, we therefore conclude thatthe results were seen to be effective that it help

to serve as fertilizer for the soil to make it

healthier. This is one way to show that gardenersshould be using organic fertilizer such as these

leaves in order to make the soil healthy compared

to those inorganic ones containing different

chemicals which may be dangerous for the plants.


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Questions:

1. What happened to the leaves, food scraps and tothe paper?

2. Did the overall volume of the compost increase

or decrease over the period of observation?

3. Did you see any mould or fungi growing in the

compost?

4. What do you prefer using organic fertilizer for the

soil or the inorganic ones? Why?

5. How can you encourage gardeners to use organic

fertilizers rather than the inorganic fertilizers?


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Designing a Classroom Activity:

Food Chainand

Food Web


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Objectives:

Students will research key facts about selected rainforest

plants and animals

Students will simulate typical food webs found in tropicalrainforests

Students will demonstrate and explain the food web

Students will understand how species in a rainforest are

interrelated and interdependent.


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Materials:

6-10 ft length of colored yarn for each player

poster paper or reused materials suitable for

organism name tags (I.D.'s)

a sun-hat for the student chosen to be the sun

markers or crayons

safety pins


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Method:

1. Group the class with 15 members each.

2. Choose a large unobstructed "play" area in theclassroom or on school grounds.

3. Each member of the group will pick their particular

role in the food chain/web such as the sun, plants,

animals and decomposers.

4. Each student has his/her name tag of his/her role in

the food chain/web. The "Sun" (yellow hat!) is in the

middle of the game area. "Plants" stand around andnear the sun; students portraying animal position

themselves in an outer circle around the plants.


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5. The teacher will signal to form a food web/chain after he/she

tells the class which producers (plants) should form the food

web first. Then students who think they should be involved in

that food web should connect themselves by using the yarnto the organism that they need in order to survive.

6. For example, the teacher said cattail which is a plant that is

being eating by crickets, then the student who picked the

cricket should connect himself to the plant and so as other

organism who eat the cricket and so on and so forth until it

reaches the decomposition.

7. They will be given 3 minutes to form the food chain/ then theleader of each group will explain why they connected those

organisms together. The first group who completed the task

with correct organization wins.


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Results:

The students understood the organization of thefood web, the reasons why the organisms are

connected in such a way that some animals feed at

different levels in the food chain , how decomposers

work and also how each organism in a rainforest needs

each other in order to survive. Aside from this basic

knowledge they also developed a sense of cooperation

towards their group. All in all, they have learned a lotthrough this activity and at the same time they enjoyed

doing this as well together with their classmates


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Conclusions:

In this activity, the students learned that a foodweb is made up of two or more interconnected food

chains. Like what they did in this game, they connect

themselves to those who they need in order to survive,

it shows the food relationships among organisms in a

community. It also explains that in a tropical rainforest

the food web is more complex and more complicated

than the simple food chains.


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Questions:

1. What is a food web? How is the sun important in a food web?

1. Explain the food web/chain that you have constructed a

while ago in this activity. Identify the tropic level of each

organism in the food web.

2. How would you explain the amount of energy level flowing

from the food chain?

3. What is the importance of decomposers in a food web? Cite

examples of decomposers.

4. If one organism in a food web is gone, how would it affect the

food chain/ food web? Cite an example.

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Explore Activity 4 - Karla Delgado