create your own food web assignment

Food Web Maker

Draw complex food webs easily, visualize interconnections in an ecosystem by creating detailed food webs or food chains to understand ecosystems better..

• 1000+ pre-made templates to get a head start
• Smart shapes & connectors to create dynamic food webs
• Real-time collaboration to work seamlessly with peers

How to make a Food Web?

Display Connections in a Food Web

Intuitive drag & drop tools to quickly draw complex food webs.

Freehand drawing to sketch anything as you analyze organisms.

Import images to create dynamic food chain diagrams.

Multiple templates for dichotomous keys, phylogenetic trees, food webs, & more.

Get Creative with Groups

Work with students, teachers, or fellow researchers on a shared canvas.

Track changes in real-time with color-coded live mouse pointers.

Comment with context to have discussions & follow ups in real-time or async!

Multiple role levels to share, edit, & review your food webs collaboratively.

Centralize Your Research Data

Add detailed docs, attachments, links & more with integrated notes.

Infinite canvas to gather research data & visually arrange them.

Built-in tools to create presentations & share them instantly with others.

Export your food web in multiple image formats for sharing & publishing.

What is a Food Web?

Food webs are part of an ecosystem, and can be used to simplify and understand the connections between different kinds of organisms, including their behavior and interactions. A food web visually maps out the interconnections between producers and consumers, containing all the food chains of an ecosystem.

Ecologists and biologists use food webs to study and understand the relationships between different organisms and their roles in an ecosystem while environmental managers and conservationists also use food webs to inform management and conservation decisions. Creating food webs collaboratively with a group of peers can help better understand the complex relationships of an ecosystem.

How to Create a Food Web with Your Peers?

Open a Creately workspace and add your peers as collaborators with edit access allowing them to work on the food web diagram with you in real-time.

Define the ecosystem you want to study by identifying the specific geographical areas, climate, and habitats, and what species of plants and animals are found there.

Collect all data and information on as many producers and consumers as possible within your chosen habitat; these include the herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores of the ecosystem. Compile a list of each organism and select the ones you wish to include in your food chain.

You can start from the bottom by creating the base level of a food chain that will consist of primary producers.This includes plants, cacti, algae, moss, etc, and organisms that produce their own food.

On the level just above the producers, you will need to insert images of the secondary consumers, this includes herbivores or omnivores. For example, a rabbit in a forest habitat that consumes plants is a herbivore, but a bird, being an omnivore, will consume fruits and worms.

The third level will consist of the tertiary consumers, the carnivores that are usually the final predators of the food web. However, there are quaternary consumers as well. For example, in a rainforest, a frog is consumed by a snake, a tertiary consumer, and is then consumed by the quaternary consumer, a hawk. To add more depth to your food web, you can add decomposers, such as bacteria that breaks down dead animals.

Create a visually appealing food web by importing images or clipart to your visual workspace, and use color palettes to get creative with different styles. Use arrows or connectors to display the relationship between all the organisms of the food web, and label the organisms if required.

You can download your creations in PDF, PNG, JPEG, or SVG formats for sharing, publishing, or printing.

Create Food Webs Faster with Premade Templates

Food Web Diagram Template

The African Savanna Food Web

Food Web Diagram

Food Web Example

FAQs about the Food Web Maker in Creately

To start creating a food web:

• Identify the ecosystem or environment you want to focus on.
• Write down the primary producers, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores in that selected habitat.
• Show the connections and energy transfers among the species through connectors or arrows, showing who the predator and prey is.

Use Creately’s infinite canvas that can accommodate 1000s of elements to start visualizing without worrying about space limitations. Import images to better support your visualization and use dynamic connectors to map out connections easily.

• The starting point of a food web is plants
• A food web cannot have more than one producer
• Species or organisms in a food web are grouped into trophic levels, divided into producers, consumers, and decomposers

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Free Online Food Web Maker

Enhance ecosystem understanding through the creation of detailed food webs and chains, allowing visualization of interconnected relationships

Gain deeper insights into ecosystems by crafting intricate food webs and food chains, offering visual representations of interconnections within the ecosystem. Join over 40,000 businesses today in using Venngage Food Web Maker.

Design from one of our food web templates

Customize one of our professionally-designed templates. see all food web templates, crafting food webs reveals ecosystem interactions, enhancing nature comprehension.

With Venngage's Food Web Maker, creating informative and captivating food webs is a breeze.

Utilize Venngage's online food web maker to produce captivating and insightful food webs with a professional appearance.

Exploring food chains and webs reveals the transfer of energy between organisms, showcasing the intricate interconnectedness of all living beings.

Venngage food web templates offer complete customization. Modify colors, shapes, lines, add new icons, illustrations, backgrounds, and seamlessly integrate your organization's branding into every design.

How to make a food web in 5 easy steps:

Explore food chains and webs to reveal energy transfer and intricate connections among living organisms

Customizable Food Webs

No prior design experience required! Everyone can produce captivating food webs using Venngage's complimentary food web templates.

User-Friendly Editor

The Venngage editor is built for non-designers. A drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to make edits, add content, and share designs.

Incorporate food webs into presentations seamlessly. DesignAI automates presentation design for you - saving you hours of time.

24-Hour Priority Support

Got a question? We're here to help. Our support team is available around the clock, so your team can keep working like clockwork.

Royalty-Free Stock Photography

Elevate your food webs through seamless integrations with Pixabay and Pexels. Gain instant access to breathtaking, expertly-captured photographs with a single click.

Brand Identity

Use the Venngage My Brand Kit feature to add brand fonts, brand colors, and your logo to your design. Add your website and the editor does the rest.

What is a Food Web?

Why is a food web important.

• Understanding Ecosystem Dynamics: Food webs provide insights into how energy and nutrients flow through an ecosystem, influencing population sizes, growth, and stability.
• Biodiversity and Balance: Food Webs showcase the interdependence of species, contributing to ecosystem balance and stability while highlighting the importance of biodiversity.
• Conservation and Management: Food webs inform conservation strategies, helping identify keystone species and vulnerabilities, guiding efforts to protect and manage species and habitats effectively.

Unleash Your Creativity with Collaborative Groups

• Collaborate with students, educators, or fellow researchers on a shared workspace.
• Track simultaneous real-time updates
• Engage in contextual discussions and follow-ups through comments in real-time or asynchronously.
• Various role levels for seamless sharing, editing, and reviewing of your food webs collaboratively.

Centralize Your Research Information

• Incorporate comprehensive documents, attachments, links, and more using integrated notes.
• Utilize an expansive canvas to collect research data and arrange it visually.
• Employ built-in tools such as icons or brand kits for crafting presentations and immediately sharing them with collaborators.
• Export your food web in various image formats for effortless sharing and publishing.

How do I sign up for Venngage's Food Web Maker?

To start using Venngage's Food Web Maker, all you have to do is sign up for free with your email, Facebook or Gmail account.

How do I share my food web?

You can share your completed food web design using a share link, or simply download it to send over a messaging platform. Venngage share links are convenient to use on multiple platforms. And we offer a variety of downloading options for food webs. Downloading as PNGs or PDFs lets you incorporate them into other materials, too.

Can I share or print out my food webs?

You can email or share your food webs on social media for free. However, there is a small monthly fee if you wish to download the food web as a PDF or PNG.

Experience the ultimate convenience with Venngage's intuitive food web maker — craft captivating visualizations that vividly create a food web's complex connections

Get started with one of our top food web templates:

Forest ecosystem connectance food web, illustrative ecosystem food web, food web in a forest ecosystem, iconic forest biome food web.

Teachers, save “Food Web Creator” to assign it to your class.

Food Web Creator

Student Instructions

Create a food web for an ecosystem of your choosing. You need to include: 2 producers 2 herbivores 2 carnivores / omnivores 1 or 2 top level predators Use the Text function to add the names of different organisms. Add pictures of species. Add arrows to show which organisms consume others.

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Food Web: Create Your Own

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How to Draw a Food Web

Last Updated: February 19, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Justine Borzumato . Justine Borzumato is a Biology Teacher at the Wardlaw+Hartridge School in Edison, New Jersey. Justine has been teaching biology since 2015 and has taught courses including AP Biology, Honors Biology, Epidemiology, and Anatomy and Physiology. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Loyola University Maryland and a Master of Science in Biology from New York University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 823,080 times.

Creating a food web is a really great way to learn more about how organisms and animals live in their natural habitats. While a food chain shows how ecosystems function in a linear way, a food web is a more visual approach with multiple animals connected to one another. To create a food web, write out the primary producers, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores for the chosen habitat. Connect them with arrows showing both predator and prey. The final product may look like an actual web or map. It can be hard to do this so don't stress out! If this is for a class grade, make sure to do your best on this. meep

Setting up Your Web

• For example, for a broader habitat, you might decide to focus on aquatic or desert spaces. Narrowing down your habitat by location, such as the Santa Fe desert, can make it even easier to construct a simple food web.

• It’s okay if your list doesn’t include every creature to live in the chosen habitat. For example, if you have 30 minutes to create the food web, only spend 5 minutes maximum creating this initial list.
• If you are studying the dry desert, you might list out lizards, cacti, snakes, and spiders.
• If you are studying the vast ocean, you might list out fish, sharks, and even plankton!

• If you run out of paper space while creating your web, you can reduce the size of your font or even write on the back of the page, too.

• For example, you might title your work, “A Desert Food Web.” You could also go with, “A Circle of Life in the Ocean,” or “A Jungle Food Web.”

• For example, a barn-owl in your chart could also be labeled by its scientific name, “Tytonidae.”

Mapping Out Your Initial Web

• For example, if you are drawing a food web of the desert, you might include cacti as a producer. It survives by using photosynthesis to convert sunlight to energy.
• Another name for primary producers in ecosystems is autotrophs.
• Some people like to put primary producers at the bottom of the page to create a visual “foundation” for their web. But, this isn’t necessary. You can put your producers anywhere on the page, as long as you leave some space between them.

• Look at your initial organism list to identify any possible primary consumers. You can also ask yourself, “Which creature would eat the producers I’ve listed?”
• For example, in a desert food web, the cacti and grass (both producers) could get eaten by grasshoppers (primary consumer).
• Because a food web isn’t supposed to resemble a list, the exact placement of each group of organisms isn’t as important as leaving enough room to draw arrows between them.

• For example, in a desert food web, a rat could be a secondary consumer. It is an omnivore that could eat both the grass and grasshoppers.

Including the Final Web Details

• You can add as many levels or layers as you like to your food web. The animals that are the final predators, almost always carnivores, are considered the alpha predators of your web.
• For example, in a desert food web, a snake could be a tertiary consumer. It preys upon rats. A hawk could be a quaternary consumer, as it preys upon snakes.
• If you’d like your web to resemble more a pyramid design, you’ll want to start with producers on 1 side of the page and end with predators on the opposite end.

• It’s important to note that decomposers usually complete work that is invisible to the naked eye. However, they are still a critical part of the food web system.
• These organisms can be placed anywhere on the page.

• For example, in a desert food web, you’d start 1 arrow at the grass and connect it to the grasshoppers. You’d start another arrow at the grass and connect it to the rats, too.
• This is a primary difference between a food web and a food chain. A food web is a bit more chaotic in that it can show multiple different arrows between creatures. Your final web will not be linear.
• You can also color-code the arrows in a larger web. For example, color plant-eaten-by-animal arrows green and animal-eaten-by-animal arrows red.
• If you are drawing your food web digitally, then you may need to use a “shape” tool to create arrows.

Expert Q&A

• Not all food webs of the same habitat will look alike. Your web will be unique depending on which animals or organisms that you choose to feature. Thanks Helpful 7 Not Helpful 5

Tips from our Readers

• Your food web does not have to be perfect. All it must do is convey the connection between the chosen organisms in a neat and accurate way.
• If you are drawing a food web, write the names of the animals lightly so you can erase, edit, and move the animals around easier.

• If you are creating your web on paper, it might help to do a first draft in pencil. This way you can erase any arrow errors that you make and correct them without a problem. Thanks Helpful 9 Not Helpful 5

Things You’ll Need

• Markers, pens, or pencils
• Computer drawing program

You Might Also Like

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about biology, check out our in-depth interview with Justine Borzumato .

• ↑ https://www.education.com/science-fair/article/desert-food-web/
• ↑ https://nrich.maths.org/7592
• ↑ https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/ecology/intro-to-ecosystems/a/food-chains-food-webs

About This Article

To draw a food web, start by making a list of all the organisms in your chosen habitat, including plants and animals. Then, on a large piece of paper, write or draw the producers, like grass, trees, and cactuses, which create their own energy, along the bottom. Above that, add your primary consumers that eat the producers, such as rats and grasshoppers. When you’ve done that, add all of the secondary consumers that eat the primary ones, and then any tertiary consumers on the top. Finally, draw arrows between the organisms to show which way the energy goes. For example, if a rabbit eats grass, draw the arrow going from the grass to the rabbit. For more tips, including how to add decomposers, like bacteria, to your food web, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Build a marine food web.

• + Create new collection

In this activity, students build their own food web using images of organisms from the marine ecosystem. This activity can be done indoors on paper or outdoors on a tarmac surface using chalk.

By the end of this activity, students should be able to:

• understand the difference between a food chain and a food web
• understand that food webs are made up of producers, consumers and decomposers
• build and revise their own food web to show the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem
• understand the potential impact of the removal or reduction of one species on the rest of the food web.

Download the Word file (see link below) for:

• introduction/background notes
• what you need
• discussion questions
• possible variations
• student worksheet
• trophic pyramid diagram
• tuna sandwich diagram (transfer of energy)
• organism cards (small)
• organism cards (large).

My kids have been making arrows to add to a poster of a foodweb and are then going to teach the lesson to another group within the class , they love the fact they are teaching others. Year 5/6 teacher

Related content

Read about how one primary school teacher adapted this activity to focus on ecosystems within the school grounds.

Further explore marine habitats , marine food webs and Marine organisms and adaptations .

Activity ideas

Try these similar activities:

• Making a food web is a practical way for students to understand the complexity of food webs.
• Marine ecosystem this interactive diagram explores food webs and other aspects of life in the sea.
• Beach visits – habitats and food webs involves students in researching and then observing a range of organisms to understand the interconnected nature of ecosystems.

Useful link

This section on the Victoria State Government Science Continuum website has more information about common student alternative conceptions related to food webs.

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Science By Sinai

Middle School Science Tips, Ideas, and Resources

How to Make Food Webs Interactive and Fun!

Are you looking for more engaging ways to teach the important concepts of food chains and webs? Do you want dynamic activities that you can refer back to over and over again?

Karen Sinai

Updated October 25, 2021

Here are some super fun activities that involve every student in a memorable, exciting way! They will completely understand the interdependence of food webs and the energy levels of food chains.

NGSS Standards

LS2-3 Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations. 

Food Chains First

It is best to start this unit by introducing the energy that moves through food chains in the different ecosystems. We discuss how energy moves from the plants all the way up to the top predators. The concept that only about 10% of the energy moves from level to level in the food chain, called the “10% rule“, is introduced.

If only 10% goes up to the next level then where does the rest of the energy go? At each level some energy is converted to heat during respiration, (before teaching this unit I introduce the photosynthesis and respiration equations and discuss the relationship between the two). Some energy is excreted as waste and some plants or animals die, without ever being eaten, so their energy is not passed on through the food chain.

This 10% rule also keeps a food chain from getting too long, since the top predator would not be getting enough energy if so much energy is lost at each level.

It is easiest to start learning about the ecosystem where your school is located. In my case, we are in the Northeast United States, so we look at animals from the temperate, deciduous forest. These are most familiar to the students.

Rather than simply showing the food chains to the students, I have them figure the order out using my drag and drop food chain activity . I am often surprised that, even in middle school, students don’t always understand which animals are carnivores and herbivores.  

Students also enjoy creating the food chains from the African savanna . (food chain activities for the rainforest, desert and ocean are coming soon to my TpT store). I use these in my environmental science unit and in preparation for Earth Day activities.

Create a Huge Classroom Food Web!

Now the real fun begins! Using their knowledge of food chains, they are now going to make a giant, student interactive food web! Students sit on the floor, in a circle, and I hand them the cards that show what each animal eats and who eats them. In the case of plants, there is a list of who eats them.

Each student reads off what is on their card and I run around the outside of the circle, with a ball of yarn, and cut pieces to connect two students together.

For example, the fox will have a string connected to the rabbit. The rabbit will also have a string connected to the clover. By the time we are done, all of the students are holding multiple strings and they absolutely love it!

As they sit holding the strings with the food web completed, I have different students slowly raise their hand holding the strings to show the effects on the rest of the web. For example, if a disease were to hit the mouse population, there are many strings attached to the mouse and it would affect the food web quite drastically.

We discuss what would happen if the top predators were removed and watch how those strings touch so many others.

After the discussion is over, I enlist a student to carry the card labeled “pollution” to run through the middle of the web! After students get over being surprised, we discuss what just happened to the web. ( Blog post on how I do it )

Reinforce the Food Web Concept Using This Activity

To solidify the concept, students use my digital food web on Google slides (in their digital science notebooks ) to connect the food chain lines. It is a reinforcement of what they did while they were sitting on the floor in the yarn web activity. Depending on the level of the students, I have them try to remember the food chains themselves or I give them the food chain list and they add the connecting lines.

If the excitement level was high enough during the first food web circle on the floor, I may do another food web from a different ecosystem a few days later. My choices are the African safari, Rainforest , Ocean or Desert . Since my students don’t live in those ecosystems, using unusual plants and animals can be a little bit more challenging.

What Would an Invasive Species Do To a Food Web?

As we finish up the food webs, we can start discussing how important biodiversity is and I prefer to start with the important question of “what if a different species came into this food web that didn’t belong there?” Not all students have heard of invasive species and may be surprised at how many of the animals in their area are actually not native!

I assign my brief Invasive Species research project on either a plant or animal that has invaded a specific ecosystem. I give them the list of choices, or they can find their own with my approval. Specific prompt questions in a graphic organizer help students stay on task. Students are usually given about four or five days to research and then they present their findings to the class.

Why is Biodiversity So Important?

Once students have presented their invasive species projects, and they understand how important it is keeping a food web intact, we delve deeper into biodiversity.

We discuss how having a lawn in their yard is very “unnatural”. They always seem so surprised to learn that man has created areas with only one or two species of plants which has changed the local ecosystem. This is also the case in areas growing food crops.

What would happen if we didn’t mow our lawn? What would it look like in a month? In a year? In five years? Students start to realize that the “natural state of their lawn“ would return if we didn’t stop it with our lawnmowers.

I take the students outside to areas of the schoolyard that are mowed and to areas that aren’t. I take a hula hoop out with me and toss it into different areas and then we try to roughly count the different types of plants that we see. We notice that the mowed areas have only one or two species.

We discuss the three main types of biodiversity, genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity.

Genetic diversity is how many genetics variations there are in a population in a given area. For example, the different body sizes, fur color and tail thickness of gray squirrels depends on their genes.

Species diversity is how many different species there are in a given area and how many individuals are represented. Referring back to our food web, how do those different species interact with each other?

Here is a great video about how Yellowstone National park was damaged by the removal of the top predator wolves. When the wolves were reintroduced, the entire ecosystem repaired itself in dramatic ways.

Ecosystem diversity is how many different types of ecosystems are in a specific area? Each food web is found in a different area but quite often the food webs overlap , such as a deciduous forest with a stream or pond.

Play the Biodiversity Dice Roll Game!

Time for a game! This game involves students rolling a pair of dice to see what sort of natural or man made events can effect the food web. I bought big foam dice from the Dollar store to make it more visual.

Student groups are given a chart with different events that correspond with the number that they threw with the dice. For example, if they threw a total of five, the chart says “deer hunting season has been extended. Many more hunters than expected. Delete the line from the deer to the bear”. Student erase that line connecting the beer and deer on their food web. ( blog post on how we play this.)

Since each of the student groups are separate, they each get different resulting “damaged” food webs after throwing their dice. I have them roll four times and then each group presents their final web to the class.

This activity leads to a lot of great discussions and I also give them eight reflection questions(included in the product). Students realize that whether the events that changed the web were man-made or natural, there is a very delicate balance in every food web and everything is interconnected.

How About a Biodiversity Board Game?

This is a 2-3 player game where the students read each card that has an event on it from the rainforest ecosystem. Students determine if the statement increases biodiversity (move one space forward) or reduces it(move one space backwards). THESE CARDS MAKE GREAT RESEARCH PROMPTS!

For more depth, students use the playing cards to fill in a  chart where they determine high or low biodiversity. I also have a Desert Biodiversity game.

Invasive Species Dice Roll Game

A variation on the game above is using the dice roll format to see what invasive species do to a specific food web. Students fill out the food web with the lines that connect the plants in the animals of the food chains. They then learn about eight different invasive species, from that ecosystem, that are causing problems.

Students roll the dice to see which invasive species is harming which native plants or animals. They use the chart to determine which lines they should ERASE between two organisms in the food web.

For example, the Burros(wild donkeys), in the desert, are aggressive and invading the territory of the Pronghorn Antelope. This will cause the Pronghorns to move out of the area. What will the affect be on the food web? The Mountain Lion will have less food so the students will erase the line between the Pronghorn and the Mountain Lion. What about the plants that the Pronghorns ate? Students will erase a line between the grasses and the Pronghorn. This activity is visually dramatic! Also, no two student groups will get the same results, which leads to awesome discussions.

Challenge Your Students with an Energy Transfer STEM Project!

Food chains are all about energy transferring from one organism to another in literally a “chain reaction”. What else has chain reactions? Rube Goldberg machines! This highly structured project involves each group of students given a four level food chain from different ecosystems. They are assigned a producer, first consumer, second consumer and a top predator. Their task is to create a four level Rube Goldberg machine to represent the food chain! ( STEM Energy Project Using Rube Goldberg Machines and Food Chains! ). I have several biomes such as a deciduous forest, ocean, rainforest, African savanna, tundra and desert in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. You can click on the image below.

By the time the students have completed the above activities, they have a good understanding of the interdependence of the plants and animals in the ecosystems of the world. To finish up this unit, I take them outside to observe their local food chains. We begin discussing how the abiotic (nonliving) factors also tie into the ecosystem. Please see my blog post called GO OUTDOORS ON AN EXCITING SCHOOLYARD ECOSYSTEM SCAVENGER HUNT.

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Creating Food Webs

In this activity, activity overview, template and class instructions, more storyboard that activities.

• This Activity is Part of Many Teacher Guides

Animals rarely exist in single, one-dimensional food chains. In order to demonstrate a more realistic representation of how energy passes from living thing to another, students will create a food web from different food chains in a single habitat . In a similar way to food chains, the arrows represent the flow of energy from one animal to another. The different colors are there to emphasize the different trophic levels, but are not necessary.

As an alternative to this assignment, give students the example food web and get students to identify different food chains from it. As an extension, get students to start to thinking how the population of one type of living thing affects another. For example if the number of Mussels increase, how will this affect the population of whelk?

(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)

Student Instructions

In the real world animals rarely exist in single food chains. Often animals need to eat different plants and animals to get all the nutrients they need. One way of showing more complex energy transfer relationships between living thing is using food webs. Create a food web from different food chains. Remember that all food webs start with energy from the Sun.

• Click "Start Assignment".
• Use these food chains to put together your food web. Use Photos for Class to find images and label them with their names. Make sure to use arrows to show the flow of energy from one living thing to another.
• Sun → Phytoplankton → Zooplankton → Caridean Shrimp → Cod
• Sun → Phytoplankton → Zooplankton → Caridean Shrimp → Laughing Gull
• Sun → Phytoplankton → Mussels → Laughing Gull
• Sun → Phytoplankton → Mussels → Jonah Crab → Laughing Gull
• Sun → Phytoplankton → Mussels → Whelk
• Sun → Phytoplankton → Mussels → American Lobster
• Sun → Seaweed → Limpet → Jonah Crab
• Sun → Seaweed → Limpet → Whelk → Laughing Gull

Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 6-8

Difficulty Level 4 (Difficult / Complex)

Type of Assignment Individual or Group

Type of Activity: Spider Maps

• [SCI-MS-LS2-3] Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

(You can also create your own on Quick Rubric .)

Food Chains

• Buccinum undatum (Common Whelk) • S. Rae • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• Cod • Cocayhi • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• fish1879 • NOAA Photo Library • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• fish3260 • NOAA Photo Library • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• Jonah crab • U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) • acryptozoo • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• limpet shell • S. Rae • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• Lobster • Jim, the Photographer • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• Mussel • Andy Gant • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• prawn • Dan Hershman • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
• seaweed • cluczkow • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

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Food Web Models

These models and simulations have been tagged “Food Web”.

Related tags Desert Arizona Food Chain Biology Animals Amazon

5 Engaging Ways to Teach Food Webs to Help Students Understand

The food web is an essential topic in ecology. It traces the flow of energy across an ecosystem, from producers to higher-level consumers. It shows the interdependence of the different species for food. 

In principle, food webs are simple, yet many students may find the topic challenging. But food webs are critical in studying biology and ecology.

Thankfully, there are engaging ways to teach this topic that make it appealing to students. Here are five such methods.

1. Use Interactive Demonstrations of Food Webs

The concept of food webs is easier to understand when you teach it in an interactive way. Introduce the topic to your students with a demonstration so they can appreciate it a lot better. 

For example, students can use online food web builders to create their own food webs. These can teach them concepts like trophic levels and energy transfer. If they make a mistake, the builder can prompt them of the error, and they can take corrective steps right away.

Interactive demonstrations can ensure that students not just become familiar with the topic, but master it.

2. Make Learning Fun with Games and Activities

Games and education actually get along quite well. When used properly, games are not distractions. Instead, they facilitate more efficient learning. Students do not even realize they are learning something while having fun.

Online food web games can teach students about this topic while making it more engaging for them. They can construct their own food webs using familiar species. They can even try making ones with organisms they haven’t seen before. 

Labster’s Food webs: Learn about interactions between trophic levels virtual lab is an example of a fun game for students to explore. It teaches the concepts of energy transfer and trophic levels in a food web. Also, the simulation lets students find out how much energy is transferred between different members of the food web. 

The fun part is the simulation is set on an alien planet. This gives students a sense of excitement as they explore the virtual world. They can learn the basic concepts in food webs using made-up species, which adds to the appeal of the game to students.

3. Infuse Technology in the Classroom

Technology is a teacher’s best friend in the modern-day classroom. Especially with students coming from Generation Z, who grew up with technology, tech-enabled teaching tools will let today’s students learn better. 

Videos and animations, for example, can teach food webs in a highly interactive way. These tools also help a lot with mastery, as students can pause and repeat them as many times as they need to. Videos are accessible on-demand, so students can watch them at their own time and at their own pace. 

Online quizzes about food webs are helpful as well. These let students test their knowledge and get immediate feedback on what they got right. Any mistakes can be corrected right away by retaking the quizzes. These platforms also give students a constant challenge as they strive for perfect scores.

4. Inspire Students with Career Paths

If students know how they can use this topic in their future careers, they will have more motivation to study it. Examples of careers that need a thorough knowledge of food webs include:

• Conservation biologist
• Sustainability scientist
• Biosecurity scientist

Students love it when they know that the lessons they study can be used in the jobs they’ll do in the future. Introducing these career paths is a great way to inspire students and get them more interested in otherwise complex topics.

5. Connect the Topic to its Real-World Applications

Food webs are not just useful in theory. They are helpful in the real world as well. Conservation biologists, for instance, use their knowledge of food webs to know which species need the most protection. Those that are essential in sustaining the energy needs of an ecosystem are critical.

Final Thoughts

Food webs and trophic levels may be intimidating at first for many students. But it doesn’t have to be boring and uninspiring. You can teach this topic creatively through technology and introducing its real world applications.

Games, in particular, can be quite helpful in the learning process. A simulation like the Food webs: Learn about interactions between trophic levels virtual lab from Labster is perfect for teaching this topic in a fun, engaging manner. Students will learn key principles in energy transfer and trophic levels. At the same time, they will engage in a fun exploration of a fictitious alien planet with unique species. Students will also find out what happens if the main source of energy is removed from the food web.

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Food Webs: 

All ecosystems and the organisms within an ecosystems require energy to sustain life and survive. This energy has to have a start point to enable it to flow through to each organism. Food webs describe the flow of this energy through an ecosystem or habitat. Food webs are made up of many different levels that each play an important role in the transfer of energy between organisms. The main levels within a food web include primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and so on. Your task is to research food webs for a given habitat, explore the different trophic levels and communicate this to your class mates. Refer to the task below and process for instructions. Good luck! 

Food Web Example: 

Please follow the below instructions for this activity: 

1. Divide into groups of 5 students. 

2. Each group will be allocated one of the following habitats: 

a) Marine environment

(YoNature [YN], 2018)

b) African savannah

(USA Today [USAT], 2022)

c) Rainforrest 

(Live Science [LS], 2022)

d) Australian bushland

(Urban Bushland Council WA Inc [UBCWA], 2022)

e) Coastal environment

(Learning Geology [LG], 2015)

3. Develop a detailed and annotated food web for your given environment and present this to your class. 

4. Once your group has been delegated an environment, groups should work to research their given ecosystem. This can be done by delegating one trophic level to each group member, such as:

Member one: Primary producers

Member two: Primary consumers

Member three: Secondary Consumers: 

Member four: Tertiary Consumers 

Member five: Decomposers

Each group member is expected to communicate their findings to the rest of their group. 

5. For each trophic level, ensure you research the following key points:

a) What is the definition of your trophic level?

b) What organisms commonly inhabit this environment as part of your trophic level?

c) What other terms describe the animals within your trophic level? (Herbivores, omnivores, predators, carnivores etc.)

d) How is energy lost from your trophic level? (Heat, movement etc.)

Note: If you are having trouble research the above points, you can refer to the below links for more information: 

Video 1. Food Webs (Crash Course Kids [CCK], 2015)

https://biologydictionary.net/trophic-level/  (BDE, 2019)

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/food-web  (NG, 2022)

6. Develop a food web in the form of a poster or digital representation that details the important levels and elements of your given habitat. 

Please refer to the below as an example. Note that you can take your own approach to this task. Creativity, images and annotations should be included in your food web for full marks. 

7. As a group, present this to your class explaining the different organisms in each trophic level. Ensure all group members have the opportunity to speak and communicate their research. 

Now that you have worked as a team to develop and present a food web of you given habitat, let's look at what we have learnt. 

1. Food webs represent what eats what within an ecosystem. 

2. Energy travels through a food web. 

3. There are many levels to a food web including primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary consumers. 

4. Within a food web, organisms can be described as the following: Autotrophs, Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores and so on.

5. Now that you have a thorough understanding of what occurs within a food web, what do you think would happen if one trophic level disappeared?

6. Congratulations on completing this task! :)  

Reference List:

BDE (BD Editors) (2019)  Trophic Level,  Biology Dictionary, accessed 23 September 2022.  https://biologydictionary.net/trophic-level/  

CCK (Crash Course Kids) (2015)  Life Science: Ecosystems and Flow of Energy: Food Webs: Crash Course Kids #21.2,  Youtube, accessed 24 September 2022.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtb3I8Vzlfg  

Let's Talk Geography (2022)  Why is Food Web Important? Types of Food Web,  Let's Talk Geography, accessed 25 September 2022.  https://letstalkgeography.com/  

LG (Learning Geology) (2015)  Coasts and Beaches Geology,  LG, accessed 23 September 2022.  http://geologylearn.blogspot.com/2015/07/coasts-and-beaches-geology.html  

LS (Live Science) (2022)  What are the Largest Rainforests in the World?,  LS, accessed 18 September 2022.  https://www.livescience.com/largest-rainforests-in-the-world

NG (National Geographic) (2022)  Food Web,  National Geographic, accessed 20 September 2022.  https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/food-web   

UBCWA (Urban Bushland Council WA Inc) (2022)  Threats to Bushland, UBCWA,  accessed 24 September 2022.  https://www.bushlandperth.org.au/threats-to-bushland-2/  

USAT (USA Today) (2022)  Plants of the African Savannah, USAT,   accessed 19 September 2022.  https://www.usatoday.com  

YN (YoNature) (2018)  What Does The Marine Environment Consist Of?,  YN, accessed 22 September 2022.  https://www.yonature.com/what-does-the-marine-environment-consist-of/  

Teacher Introduction:

My name is Chelsea Mason and I am currently a Pre-Service Teacher in my second year of my Master's of Secondary School Teaching. I have a large interest in Science and Biology and cannot wait to start my teaching career.

I created this resource as part of an assessment task for ESS755 - General Science Curriculum Inquiry Senior Years. It is recommended for addressing the curriculum links ACSSU112 and ACSIS133 in the year 7 science Australian National Curriculum (ACARA, 2022). Thank you for reading! 

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