Overview: This WebQuest concentrates on Food Webs and allows students to explore the relationships between different types of organisms in different environments. This is part of the requirements for biology/life science content for GLE's for Washington State.

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Major Curriculum Area: Science

Targeted Grade Level: 9 or 10

Washington State GLE's:

1.3.10: Analyze the living and nonliving factors that affect organisms in ecosystems. 

• Describe how matter and energy are transferred and cycled through ecosystems (i.e., matter and energy move from plants to herbivores/omnivores to carnivores and decomposers).
• Compare different ecosystems in terms of the cycling of matter and flow of energy.
• Describe how population changes cause changes in the cycle of matter and the flow of energy in ecosystems
• Describe the living and nonliving factors that limit the size and affect the health of a population in an ecosystem.

3.1.3: Evaluate consequences, constraints, and applications of solutions to a problem or challenge. 

• Explain the criteria to evaluate the solution(s) to a problem or challenge.
• Explain the effectiveness of the solution to the problem or challenge using scientific principles and concepts.
• Explain the consequences of the solution(s) to the problem or challenge (e.g., doubling the fertilizer will probably not double the plant growth and could cause harm to the ecosystem).
• Explain how to change a system to solve a problem or improve a solution to a problem.
• Compare and evaluate the effectiveness of different solutions to a problem or challenge based on criteria, using scientific concepts and principles.

3.2.4: Analyze the effects human activities have on Earth’s capacity to sustain biological diversity. 

• Explain how the use of renewable and nonrenewable natural resources affects the sustainability of an ecosystem.
• Explain how human activities affect Earth’s capacity to sustain biological diversity (e.g., global warming, ozone depletion).

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Materials Needed: Computers (one computer for every group of three students) and a printer; supplies for students to design and create a food web (markers, colored pencils, construction paper, scissors, glue or tape, magazines to cut pictures from)

Prior Knowledge:

*Previous lesson on biodiversity

*Previous lesson on organisms and species

*Previous lesson on endangered and threatened species

Required Skills: Basic Computer/Internet skills, Writing skills

Use & Pacing: This webquest should be used as a supplement to the lesson on biodiversity. It is an introduction to food webs and asks students to do basic research and to define terms before they can begin designing their food web. Higher order thinking skills are required as they move farther into the position paper and are asked to answer specific questions about what they have learned from the food web creation. It should require two 50 minute class periods in the computer lab and the rest of the time can be spent in the classroom (another two to three days to create the food web and write the position paper).