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In this activity, which is ideal for grades 4-5, students will utilize an outdoor game to develop evidence of the cause and effect relationships within an ecosystem to develop a model of how an ecosystem in harmony is sustainable. The game allows for both physical and biological stressors to be added, such that the organisms within the ecosystem have to adapt.

In the second part of this activity students will build on the skills learned in the previous activity to identify and predict patterns observed between organisms within an ecosystem. The students will modify the game using an expected relationship to observe how this change affects the system as a whole.

By the end of the activities students should be able to:

• Identify factors which contribute to the survival of plants and animals in habitats
• Recognize the interconnectedness of all living things in environments

Additional resources included with the activity plan:

• Food web game details
• Food web game cards

Additional resource required:

• Pylons / cones
• Whistle
• Paper and pencils
• Hard writing surface (for each student)