Or
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DISCUSS (1 of 2):
What do you think is wrong with the fish?
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DISCUSS (2 of 2):
What would you do to try to help the fish?
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DISCUSS:
How can fish survive in a pond if waste doesn’t get filtered out of the water?
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DISCUSS:
Can you think of anything that could help LOWER the amount of carbon dioxide in a pond?
Hint:
What living things NEED carbon dioxide?
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1. DRAW: Sketch a model of the interactions in a pond ecosystem. To get started, write plants, decomposers, and pond animals on a piece of paper. (Don’t write them too close to each other, you’ll be adding things in between them). Then draw arrows and add labels to show all the things that connect them.
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2. CHECK: Did you include waste, nutrients, carbon dioxide, and oxygen arrows in your model? If not, add arrows in for those too.
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3. HERE’S WHAT WE DID: Here’s what our model ecosystem looked like, but there are many ways to draw this and yours might look different.
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Teachers: If you are short on time, this is a good stopping point. You can play the Big Fish ecosystem game in a future session.
If you’ll be playing another day, have each pair of students clip their cards, their Fish-o-meter, their pointer and their worksheets together with a binder clip.
If you’re continuing right now, advance to the next slide.
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In this lesson, students combine what they have learned about plants, animals, and decomposers to see how they interact in an ecosystem. In the activity, Pond Ecosystem Game, students first build a pond ecosystem that will support a sunfish. To succeed, they must make sure that carbon dioxide levels are healthy for both plants and animals. Then, students play a game called Big Fish where they compete to make a healthy ecosystem for a sunfish.
Preview activity| Action Cards printout | Print 8 copies |
| Big Fish Ecosystem Cards printout | Print 15 copies |
| Check the Pond printout | Print 30 copies |
| Fish-O-Meter printout | Print 30 copies |
| Pick-a-Card/Discard Pile/How to Play printout | Print 8 copies |
|
Scissors
|
30 pairs |
In Part 1 of this activity, students will work in pairs. In Part 2 of this activity, students will work in groups of four to play the Big Fish game. Homeschool students can work on their own for Part 1, but will need a few friends in order to play the game.
Part 1 (building an ecosystem) takes 10 to 15 minutes. Part 2 (playing the game) takes at least 20 minutes.
You may want to divide this lesson into two sessions, stopping after Part 1 and continuing with the game at a later point. If you plan to do the activity in two sessions, the group game begins at Step 12.
Divide your materials into two piles.
For Part 1, you’ll need:
For Part 2, you’ll need:
If you want to do Part 1 and Part 2 on different days, you can keep materials organized by having each pair of students clip their cards, their Fish-O-Meter, their pointer, and their worksheets together with a binder clip at the end of Part 1.
When you are doing Part 2, start by giving each pair of students their materials from Part 1. Then have pairs get together to make groups of four and distribute the additional worksheets.
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