[ECOLOG-L] EDUCATION Ecology Watershed dynamics Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Wayne Tyson]

Jim:

You've received a lot of good suggestions. I just wonder if burying these 
snapping young minds under pyramids of any kind might be too much "instruction" 
and not enough experience and teaching/learning is not something of a danger. I 
think you're right to be concerned about "bean-counting." 

I don't know about "tried and true," but I wonder if modeling the watershed in 
the classroom and doing some simple demonstrations of things like rainfall 
interception, stemflow, infiltration, percolation, evapotranspiration, 
groundwater, available water capacity and the like, leading to the effects of 
water and other minerals upon soil biology and chemistry and how these factors 
lead to variations in populations and limits, then how direct and indirect 
influences of human activity affect these factors might not make those 
especially fertile minds (GL 4-6) anxious to progress to the next grade to 
continue the continuum? 

Experiments, field trips, and hands-on demonstrations can be done very much "on 
the cheap" without using value. Looking, for example, at the micro-community 
around a dripping faucet in the schoolyard could be a start, and some clear 
water bottles filled with sand, silt, and clay could be starters, as could 
simple excavations in the schoolyard and examination with cheap magnifying 
glasses could suffice. Tracing out watershed boundaries on topo maps, of 
course, and a thousand other ideas you have probably already thought of. 

Oh, yes--not only would I be interested in the compilation of suggestions, I 
would be most interested in (briefly) how you put the whole program together 
and what the three or five essentials that every child should know if they know 
nothing else are. And even more interested in what the teachers themselves 
think those essentials are. 

WT

Email for details. 


- Original Message - 
From: "Jim Biardi" 
To: 
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 6:13 AM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic 
efficieny/biomass pyramids


I work with a local environmental education group that is developing
curriculum on local watershed issues. They are currently searching for a
hands-on activity appropriate to primary (4-6) grade levels that can
illustrate the energetic principles underlying biomass pyramids. We¹ve
discussed several ideas, mostly centering on Oforaging¹ for beads or some
other counter used to represent food items, but haven¹t yet come across
anything that avoids a lot of bean-counting by the students.

If anyone has suggestions or leads to a tried and true activity on this
topic, we¹d appreciate feedback. I¹d be happy provide a summary of responses
to others interested in this.

Thanks,
Jim 
-- 
James E. Biardi, PhD
Assistant Professor
Fairfield University
Biology Department - BNW 206
1073 North Benson Road
Fairfield, CT  USA06824

Phone:  203-254-4000, ext. 3465
Fax:  203-254-4253
--
Please consider wise use of resources
prior to printing this email






No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com 
Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.19/1855 - Release Date: 12/18/2008 
10:16 AM

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Jane Shevtsov]

This isn't hands-on, but Jean Craighead George has written several
"ecological mysteries" that I absolutely loved as a kid. If I remember
correctly, two involve trophic relationships -- _Hook a Fish, Catch a
Mountain_ (republished as _The Case of the Missing Cutthroats_) and
_Who Really Killed Cock Robin?_. Books like these do a great job of
linking what we actually see in nature (an unusually large trout, a
dead robin) with invisible ecological relationships.

Jane Shevtsov

On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Jim Biardi  wrote:
> I work with a local environmental education group that is developing
> curriculum on local watershed issues. They are currently searching for a
> hands-on activity appropriate to primary (4-6) grade levels that can
> illustrate the energetic principles underlying biomass pyramids. We¹ve
> discussed several ideas, mostly centering on Œforaging¹ for beads or some
> other counter used to represent food items, but haven¹t yet come across
> anything that avoids a lot of bean-counting by the students.
>
> If anyone has suggestions or leads to a tried and true activity on this
> topic, we¹d appreciate feedback. I¹d be happy provide a summary of responses
> to others interested in this.
>
> Thanks,
> Jim
> --
> James E. Biardi, PhD
> Assistant Professor
> Fairfield University
> Biology Department - BNW 206
> 1073 North Benson Road
> Fairfield, CT  USA06824
>
> Phone:  203-254-4000, ext. 3465
> Fax:  203-254-4253
> --
> Please consider wise use of resources
> prior to printing this email
>



-- 
-
Jane Shevtsov
Ecology Ph.D. student, University of Georgia
co-founder, http://www.worldbeyondborders.org";>World Beyond Borders
Check out my blog, http://perceivingwholes.blogspot.com";>Perceiving Wholes

"Political power comes out of the look in people's eyes." --Kim
Stanley Robinson, _Blue Mars_

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Louis Macovsky]

Take a look at the following site:
http://www.clexchange.org/ and join their listserve discussion group
(recently there was a serious discussion of K-12 pedagogy).

A few years ago for third graders, I gave an introduction to systems with
some games from the above site and its links.  We then walked around the 
school

and the kids pointed out natural and man-made systems, identifying causal
relationships.  Then we used very basic System
Dynamics modeling methods including causal loop diagrams on a white board
and then in a computer to discuss system behavior of systems of their
choice; they all chose some question about wildlife population dynamics.  It
was their introduction to thinking about systems in nature and
behavior-over-time graphs (their previous knowledge of graphs was for the
most part histograms and pie charts).  They realized that behavior of a
system actor does not correlate directly to system behavior.

Causal diagrams and Stock and Flow diagrams are very accessible to students
grades 3-12+.  System Dynamics modeling tools only require students (and
adult stakeholders) to recognize causal links between actors of a system 
followed by the
input of simple algebraic relationships. (The System Dynamics software 
solves

the resulting ODEs/integrations with Eulers or Runga-Kutta).  The result is
a discussion of system state change over time and its implications.  With
the diagrams in front of you, students can discuss possible leverage points
to manage or change the outcomes.

Perhaps combining diagrams and computer modeling in the classroom with
nuthatch and creeper games outdoors will be an effective combination of
students' love for computers and outside exploration.

Lou

Louis Macovsky
Dynamic BioSystems
28695 SW Sandalwood Dr.
Wilsonville, OR 97070
503-570-0115
dynbio...@verizon.net

[ECOLOG-L] Education Nature and/of difficulties in teaching and learning Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Wayne Tyson]

Ah-HA! This has got to be one of my all-time favorite posts on ecolog.



My own great fortune was that my parents "neglected" me. My playground was 
the woods and fields, and my mostly-Cherokee grandmother took me out into 
"the field," including weed patches, as soon as I could walk. This 
"education" was imperfection, and I am imperfection personified. I consider 
myself fortunate to have maintained at least a semblance of ignorance 
despite all the best efforts of several institutions of "higher" learning to 
beat the bliss out of me, to keep my thinking in line, to instruct me in the 
proper way of thinking and knowledge. Pushing at the edges of my ignorance 
is such fun, and each step upward reveals an ever larger sea of ignorance 
before me. I will die ignorant. But at least I kicked hard right rudder and 
saved myself from linear verticality before too much damage was done.




This is not to say that institutionalized knowledge is all bad; only that it 
can be a significant barrier to thinking as well as, at its best (and 
unfortunately at its rarest), a highly stimulating surrogate for immersion 
into reality. My memories of my various institutionalizations are of the 
exceptions, those who rose above instruction, disregarded professing, and 
taught by challenging each student much as my grandmother did.




Apart from rising up from our keyboards, freeing ourselves from 
pixel-prisons, and opening up the book of Nature right in our back yards and 
letting our minds play freely, I hope to read more such posts, and a 
building upon Teresa's many, many jewel-like points buried between, as well 
as in, her lines.




Here are a few books worth reading when one is too confined to breathe free, 
and I hope y'all will add to the list. Mind you, they are not perfect, but 
all contain at least some jewels that can be catalysts, springboards, 
connective tissue and the like, to help to counter the great gulf of 
rigidity that persistently threatens to drown the divergent.




Animals in Translation--Temple Grandin



Fuzzy Logic--Daniel McNeil



Deschooling Society--Ivan Illich



The Log From the Sea of Cortez--John Steinbeck (with Ed Ricketts)



The Gift--Lewis Hyde



Homo Ludens-Johann Huizinga*



Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, and What Do You Care What Other People 
Think?






Well, you get the drift . . . diversity (convergence AND divergence)



WT



 a.. "A happier age than ours once made bold to call our species by the 
name of Homo Sapiens. In the course of time we have come to realize that we 
are not so reasonable after all as the Eighteenth Century, with its worship 
of reason and its naive optimism, thought us; hence modern fashion inclines 
to designate our species as Homo Faber: Man the Maker. But though faber may 
not be quite so dubious as sapiens it is, as a name specific of the human 
being, even less appropriate, seeing that many animals too are makers. There 
is a third function, however, applicable to both human and animal life, and 
just as important as reasoning and making - namely, playing. It seems to 
Huizinga that next to Homo Faber, and perhaps on the same level as Homo 
Sapiens, Homo Ludens, Man the Player, deserves a place in our 
nomenclature." -blurb from Beacon Press edition, 1955.



Note: In my opinion, this book needs a new translation. Dutch scholars 
please take note. The translation I read was done by an Englishman.






- Original Message - 
From: "Teresa M. Woods" 

To: 
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic 
efficieny/biomass pyramids



One of the most difficult things about educating children, and actually
older students up to adults, is how difficult it is to understand
abstract concepts without a great deal of practical, meaningful and
authentic experience.  Learning theorists emphasize this point
repeatedly.  Hence, the move toward hands-on and inquiry learning.

However, when our hands-on activities are also abstract representations
of reality, it may not actually be any easier for students to make the
connection.  If you haven't read Richard Louv's book, /Last Child in the
Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder/, I highly
recommend it just to get a taste of how -- in general -- today's
children are deprived of basic experiences in nature most of us had
growing up.  These experiences are the  foundation upon which concepts
of nature can be cultivated.

So if you have the opportunity, I strongly recommend getting the
students actually exploring out in nature themselves to gather direct
experiences related to this concept.  It is often erroneous to assume
they have such experience.   (Louv has galvanized the movement called No
Child Left Inside, with a bill passing the House -- yet to go to the
Senate -- see the Children and Nature Network -- 
http://

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[William Silvert]

I would like to add an anecdote related to this observation. A former 
sister-in-law of mine used to lead field trips for New York City kids in 
rural parks. The kids were mostly really tough types from rough 
neighborhoods who acted up on the bus and were pretty intimidating. But once 
they got into the woods with what to them were strange sounds and dark 
thickets, they became quiet and obviously scared. And on overnight camping 
trips they were absolutely terrified (granted, the call of an owl can be 
pretty spooky!). Even the ones who weren't scared couldn't sleep, they found 
the outdoors too noisy -- these kids who grew up with the sounds of horns 
and sirens every night!


Bill Silvert

- Original Message - 
From: "Teresa M. Woods" 

To: 
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 6:14 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic 
efficieny/biomass pyramids



I am indeed disturbed by the dearth of direct experience many students 
have with nature, though the ones that do are a breath of fresh air!  It 
may sound just too simple, but starting at a very young age, children need 
such direct experiences. 

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[William Silvert]

One of the more interesting papers I have read was by Ray Sheldon and Steve 
Kerr on "The Population Density of Monsters in Loch Ness" monster, based on 
biomass size spectrum theory and the assumption of sexual reproduction (so 
that there would have to be at least two monsters). David Inouye kindly 
provided me with a a link to the paper 
(http://nospam.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_17/issue_5/0796.pdf), which was published 
in 1972 and was one of the earliest "applications" of size spectrum theory 
to aquatic systems.


Bill Silvert


- Original Message - 
From: "Jennifer Doherty" 

To: 
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 4:20 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic
efficieny/biomass pyramids



I teach teachers and they really enjoy this Loch Ness Monster card game.

Jennifer*

Loch Ness Monster Food Web and Trophic level
Activities<http://www.lochnessproject.org/adrian_shine_schoolpuzzpage/loch_ness_workpack_2/FOOD%20CHAIN%20PYRAMID/loch_ness_food_chain_index.htm>
* Can the Loch Ness monster exist?  Is being a vegetarian better for the
environment?  Do toxins affect different trophic levels differently?  A
series of card games for students to explore these questions.

http://www.lochnessproject.org/adrian_shine_schoolpuzzpage/loch_ness_workpack_2/FOOD%20CHAIN%20PYRAMID/loch_ness_food_chain_index.htm
--
Jennifer Doherty 

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Teresa M. Woods]

One of the most difficult things about educating children, and actually 
older students up to adults, is how difficult it is to understand 
abstract concepts without a great deal of practical, meaningful and 
authentic experience.  Learning theorists emphasize this point 
repeatedly.  Hence, the move toward hands-on and inquiry learning. 

However, when our hands-on activities are also abstract representations 
of reality, it may not actually be any easier for students to make the 
connection.  If you haven't read Richard Louv's book, /Last Child in the 
Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder/, I highly 
recommend it just to get a taste of how -- in general -- today's 
children are deprived of basic experiences in nature most of us had 
growing up.  These experiences are the  foundation upon which concepts 
of nature can be cultivated. 

So if you have the opportunity, I strongly recommend getting the 
students actually exploring out in nature themselves to gather direct 
experiences related to this concept.  It is often erroneous to assume 
they have such experience.   (Louv has galvanized the movement called No 
Child Left Inside, with a bill passing the House -- yet to go to the 
Senate -- see the Children and Nature Network -- 
http://www.childrenandnature.org/)


One of the most effective activities I've used (and actually learned 
from a favorite prof of mine) was to imagine oneself as an insect-eating 
bird such as a nuthatch or brown creeper in the winter, and go out and 
try to find in the bark of trees what they are eating.   Watch their 
utter amazement at what they find!  A follow-up discussion can then 
center around how many insects per day they think a bird eats.  What do 
the insects eat?  Does anything rely on eating the birds?  What happens 
if the microbes the insects eat disappeared? 

Whatever trophic webs exist in the region you live in, including urban 
areas, you can think of similar examples of having the students go out 
and try to find the organisms at lower trophic levels.  Some will be 
plentiful (pastures for cattle; fields for grasshoppers, fields and 
woods for deer, mice, etc.), some not so.  It's interesting to juxtapose 
a challenge with a plentiful resource and a scarce resource.


Nothing takes the place of direct discovery in the authentic 
environment, with hands-on experiences that are real, not a hands-on 
substitute of the real thing.  Coming back into the classroom and doing 
the math (as well described in a previous post), then, is so much more 
relevant, and they can be awed by the conceptual discovery then too.  
Examining their own dinner menu is a great follow-up exercise.  Or 
exercises of calculating how many heads of cattle can be supported by so 
many acres of land, etc.


I am indeed disturbed by the dearth of direct experience many students 
have with nature, though the ones that do are a breath of fresh air!  It 
may sound just too simple, but starting at a very young age, children 
need such direct experiences.  There's also a growing body of research 
supporting the very beneficial aspects of unstructured free play in 
nature for children (from developing observation skills to 
problem-solving skills and innovation as well as increased degrees of 
self-efficacy).  I know it's often not possible to take students 
outdoors, but when it is, it's important in ways that go beyond just our 
specific lesson plan. 

I know -- I'm preaching to the choir.   So I'll stop.  The cold day 
outside beckons


Teresa

Teresa M. Woods, M.S.
Coordinator
Olathe Educational Partnership

K-State Olathe Innovation Campus, Inc.
18001 West 106th Street, Suite 160
Olathe, KS  66061-2861

Office:  Olathe Northwest High School
21300 College Blvd., Rm. 1833
Olathe, KS  66061
Tel: 913-780-7150
Mobile: 913-269-8512




Jim Biardi wrote:

I work with a local environmental education group that is developing
curriculum on local watershed issues. They are currently searching for a
hands-on activity appropriate to primary (4-6) grade levels that can
illustrate the energetic principles underlying biomass pyramids. We¹ve
discussed several ideas, mostly centering on OEforaging¹ for beads or some
other counter used to represent food items, but haven¹t yet come across
anything that avoids a lot of bean-counting by the students.

If anyone has suggestions or leads to a tried and true activity on this
topic, we¹d appreciate feedback. I¹d be happy provide a summary of responses
to others interested in this.

Thanks,
Jim 
  

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[William Silvert]

I'd like to make a pitch for introducing fuzzy logic in trophic indices. 
Using fractional levels is ambiguous, as TL=3 could either be primary 
carnivores or organisms who eat both plants and primary carnivores. I would 
rather replace the latter by 50% TL=1 and 50% TL=3.


For students this is actually easier. If half of what they eat is vegetables 
and half is meat, then they are 50% TL=2 and 50% TL=3.


It also makes it easy to get more sophisticated. If 20% of what they eat is 
beef or some other herbivore, that is 20% TL=3. But if they are eating 10% 
salmon, which is a carnivorous fish, that is 10% TL=4. Supposing that the 
rest is veggies and fruits, what is more informative, to say nothing of 
easier to calculate?


70% TL=2, 20% TL=3, 10% TL=4 OR
TL=(2*0.7+3*0.2+4*0.1)=2.4?

Then if you get into trophic efficiency, you can calculate the energy 
required to produce food broken down by trophic level, but not if all you 
know is the average.


Bill Silvert


- Original Message - 
From: "Hilary Callahan" 

To: 
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic 
efficieny/biomass pyramids




I don't know if this qualifies as hand-on, but in my non-majors college
student course I teach trophic levels quantitatively ... we do this so 
that
we can understand the difficulty of figuring out whether trophic levels 
are

indeed declining in various large marine ecosystems and globally.

As I introduce the basics of pyramids of #, biomass, and energy, I also 
ask

them to fill out a very small questionnaire about their diets. I somewhat
arbitrarily assign a trophic value of 2.0 for strict vegans, 2.2 for
lacto-ovo-vegetarians, 2.4 for omnivores, and 2.6 for students who consume
meat at 2+ meals per day.

I collect and compile these, looking at the class average for trophic 
level.


This info becomes valuable the next session, when we get into the issue 
that
there are in-between cases (organisms that are not strictly primary 
consumer

or secondary consumer), the difficulty of assigning a trophic level to an
entire species given variation among individuals such as across
developmental stages (omnivores as juvenile, vegetarian as adult), and 
also

perhaps variation in ecological context (vegetarian on campus but omnivore
at home), etc.

We also talk about how data can be biased or inaccurate. What if people 
lied
on the questionnaire? We then get into methods for validating trophic 
level

estimates using multiple mechanisms, using analysis of nitrogen stable
isotopes, or of stomach contents.

This may be a little advanced, and not exactly hands-on, but it makes the
topic relevant to their lives and the exercise is adaptable to other
audiences and contexts. I find that almost everyone -- non-majors and 
majors
alike -- likes to think about food, including how individual and human 
diets

situate our species in the trophic pyramid, and the associated energetics.

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Hilary Callahan]

I don't know if this qualifies as hand-on, but in my non-majors college
student course I teach trophic levels quantitatively ... we do this so that
we can understand the difficulty of figuring out whether trophic levels are
indeed declining in various large marine ecosystems and globally.

As I introduce the basics of pyramids of #, biomass, and energy, I also ask
them to fill out a very small questionnaire about their diets. I somewhat
arbitrarily assign a trophic value of 2.0 for strict vegans, 2.2 for
lacto-ovo-vegetarians, 2.4 for omnivores, and 2.6 for students who consume
meat at 2+ meals per day.

I collect and compile these, looking at the class average for trophic level.

This info becomes valuable the next session, when we get into the issue that
there are in-between cases (organisms that are not strictly primary consumer
or secondary consumer), the difficulty of assigning a trophic level to an
entire species given variation among individuals such as across
developmental stages (omnivores as juvenile, vegetarian as adult), and also
perhaps variation in ecological context (vegetarian on campus but omnivore
at home), etc.

We also talk about how data can be biased or inaccurate. What if people lied
on the questionnaire? We then get into methods for validating trophic level
estimates using multiple mechanisms, using analysis of nitrogen stable
isotopes, or of stomach contents.

This may be a little advanced, and not exactly hands-on, but it makes the
topic relevant to their lives and the exercise is adaptable to other
audiences and contexts. I find that almost everyone -- non-majors and majors
alike -- likes to think about food, including how individual and human diets
situate our species in the trophic pyramid, and the associated energetics.

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Jennifer Doherty]

I teach teachers and they really enjoy this Loch Ness Monster card game.

Jennifer*

Loch Ness Monster Food Web and Trophic level
Activities
* Can the Loch Ness monster exist?  Is being a vegetarian better for the
environment?  Do toxins affect different trophic levels differently?  A
series of card games for students to explore these questions.

http://www.lochnessproject.org/adrian_shine_schoolpuzzpage/loch_ness_workpack_2/FOOD%20CHAIN%20PYRAMID/loch_ness_food_chain_index.htm
-- 
Jennifer Doherty
Ph.D. candidate
School District of Philadelphia Education Fellow

Graduate Group of Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity
Department of Biology
University of Pennsylvania

Leidy Labs 321
415 S University Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6018
cell 215-870-9806
doher...@sas.upenn.edu
http://groups.google.com/group/biology-pd

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Stephen Crowley]

Project WILD is a widely distributed program that 
includes a number of grade-level appropriate 
activities on the topic.  The one that comes to 
mind (because my own 12 year old just had a great 
time doing this with his class) is called Oh! 
Deer, and has students running around simulating 
various wildlife populations.  Always fun and the 
active, physical engagement opens doors to a deep 
experience of the relationships.  While they do 
some bean counting (or head counting), it's their 
own heads so it's OK.  Neither their 
developmental level nor the national standards 
support seriously quantitative understandings at 
this point, and what they'll get out of it is a 
high quality, qualitative sense of the pyramids, 
as well as the dynamic nature of a changing 
community in balance.  (not so sure they'd learn 
much about a quantitative sense of the  2nd 
law)  You do need a sizeable number to do this, 
maybe 20 plus, but most classes will have that many kids to work with.


I've done another one called It's a Squirrels 
Life, which I found many years ago in one of the 
NSTA publications, maybe Science and 
Children.   Long time ago, but excellent activity.


Steve Crowley


At 09:13 AM 12/19/2008, Jim Biardi wrote:

I work with a local environmental education group that is developing
curriculum on local watershed issues. They are currently searching for a
hands-on activity appropriate to primary (4-6) grade levels that can
illustrate the energetic principles underlying biomass pyramids. We¹ve
discussed several ideas, mostly centering on Œforaging¹ for beads or some
other counter used to represent food items, but haven¹t yet come across
anything that avoids a lot of bean-counting by the students.

If anyone has suggestions or leads to a tried and true activity on this
topic, we¹d appreciate feedback. I¹d be happy provide a summary of responses
to others interested in this.

Thanks,
Jim
--
James E. Biardi, PhD
Assistant Professor
Fairfield University
Biology Department - BNW 206
1073 North Benson Road
Fairfield, CT  USA06824

Phone:  203-254-4000, ext. 3465
Fax:  203-254-4253
--
Please consider wise use of resources
prior to printing this email

[ECOLOG-L] Need suggestions for hands-on activity about trophic efficieny/biomass pyramids

[Jim Biardi]

I work with a local environmental education group that is developing
curriculum on local watershed issues. They are currently searching for a
hands-on activity appropriate to primary (4-6) grade levels that can
illustrate the energetic principles underlying biomass pyramids. We¹ve
discussed several ideas, mostly centering on Œforaging¹ for beads or some
other counter used to represent food items, but haven¹t yet come across
anything that avoids a lot of bean-counting by the students.

If anyone has suggestions or leads to a tried and true activity on this
topic, we¹d appreciate feedback. I¹d be happy provide a summary of responses
to others interested in this.

Thanks,
Jim 
-- 
James E. Biardi, PhD
Assistant Professor
Fairfield University
Biology Department - BNW 206
1073 North Benson Road
Fairfield, CT  USA06824

Phone:  203-254-4000, ext. 3465
Fax:  203-254-4253
--
Please consider wise use of resources
prior to printing this email