Task 1

Materials and tools for a working group:

magazines (or pre-prepared images), scissors, glue, paint, drawing, secondary resources (for the whole class – eg encyclopedia, internet connection).

In this activity, pupils focus on examining the relationships between animals with respect to their dietary preferences. The pupils‘ task is to arrange the pictures (grass, snake – grass snake, frog – brown frog, owl – brown owl) into the outline that begins with the sun (task 1A). This creates a food chain. Previously, however, he discussed with pupils various food relationships in nature. He then explains to them that these relationships can be easily depicted / drawn by means of a diagram, with arrows indicating the direction of the food chain.

After the food chain has been created from the pictures above, the teacher asks the pupils to explain the arrangement of the pictures into a diagram. Once pupils are familiar with the food chain representation using the scheme, the next task will be to try to create their own food chain scheme from the images available in task B. The teacher asks the pupils to try to include as many images as possible .

A variation of this activity may be that the teacher provides pupils with different magazines (or the teacher prepares pre-cut pictures in advance). Their task is to cut out any pictures that they could include in their own food chain design. The pictures can be stacked on the drawing and the arrows (food relations) can be drawn by hand.

The teacher discusses the created schemes with the pupils and asks them to explain the arrangement. The teacher explains the pupils that those animals that only feed on plant food are called herbivores. Those ones that feed on other animals are carnivores, and those that do not distinguish between them are omnivores.

If pupils are unsure about some of the relationships, they can look for information in secondary sources. Finally, the teacher can suggest pupils to create their own food chain, including human beings (task C). Pupils can use a pre-made scheme, or they can re-create their own layout design where they can use more / less boxes in the scheme. In addition, pupils identify the consumer (herbivore, carnivore, omnivore).