GR7 – Food Web Science

General Area:  Food Web Biology

Observations:

  • Diseases impact webs
    • Do animals avoid diseased animals (over multiple generations)
    • Diseases you cant detect
    • What were among the first diseases
  • Changes in animal abundances (losing some gaining others)
    • How have environments changed locally
    • Local experts
    • Removal of a predator
    • Only predators
  • Webs are connected globally
    • How do animals move
  • Where do different organisms fall on food chain
    • Human
    • Octopii
    • Whats at the bottom?
    • Whales (killer whales vs others vs sharks)
  • Where do humans fall on the food chain/web and how do we affect the food web
  • How did we come up with the idea of food chains/webs
  • How did peoples invent foods – how did that affect food webs
  • Do animals have “war”
    • Difference type competition within (war)
  • Physiological Systems are similar across food web
    • similar requirements (e.g. water)
    • Do some use different methods of energy conversion

Question Development:

How do changes (e.g. from diseases, habitat loss,) in one level (e.g. a predator) of a food web affect the other levels. How has our local food web responded to change?

  • How do diseases effect the food web
  • What would the world be like if all predators were extinct?
  • How do animals respond to changes in their food web (do they change their behaviour)

Background

  • Who created it and why? (pandagirl)
  • What is a food web and how is it used in science? (honeycomb and pandagirl)
    • Food web vs. food chain
  • WHERE ARE THE DIFFERENT ANIMALS in the food web? (honeycomb)
  • Local food web (Danglekid) compared to other places (African: Spongeboy, Europe: SF, Asian: Lunala2398)
  • What causes changes in food webs (e.g. disease: Spoderman & Panadagirl, fire, habit loss: SF)

Ideas for Next Steps

  • Continue to research  food webs in general and food webs of your interest
  • Compare other food webs to local food webs
  • Access local experts in forest and wildlife management
  • Access local experts to obtain advice on the purchase of a trail camera (80 – 120.00 price range)
  • Get access to local footage from local trail cams already in existence?
  • Use trail cam to capture and identify some of the animals in the local food web
  • Access expert information about the perceived health of the local food web
  • Research what is presently being done to preserve and  improve the health of the local food web

FOOD WEB INQUIRY 

To begin our food web inquiry, we each focused on our own food webs of interest and then shared our findings with our team.   We took note of how animal food webs varied from region to region and discussed the causes for changes within food webs. (e.g. disease, drought, loss of habitat, fire, over-population of a species)  We also researched how different animals in the food chain are categorized.

LOCAL FOOD WEB INQUIRY
Next, we chose to do a deeper investigation of our local food web by creating a model. We started by researching producers and then moved to primary, secondary and tertiary consumers. Below is a sample of the information cards we made for each animal.

The three sites we used were to gather information and photos from were:

Hinterland Who’s Who
http://www.hww.ca/en/index.html

Fort Nelson Aboriginal Project 
https://www.sd81.bc.ca/rla/wp-content/RLA/Aboriginal/fnaptoc.html

WELCOME TO SIERRA CLUB BC’S ECOMAP!
https://sierraclub.bc.ca/ecomap/

As we were building our food web model on the bulletin board near the school entrance, we realized that we needed to include smaller animals like rodents and insects.

Food Web Inquiry Project – A visit from an Insect Expert
To help identify some of the insects that feed on many local plants and are consumed by local animals, we decided to invite Jason Smith, a local expert from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.  He explained that insects are under appreciated for their role in the food web and that they perform many important functions. They aerate the soil, pollinate blossoms, and control insect and plant pests. Without insects to help break down and dispose of wastes, dead animals and plants would accumulate and become a problem in our environment.  We were very impressed with his depth of knowledge and with his passion for this topic.

Jason Smith, a local expert from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.Talking About the role of Insects in our Local Food Web.

Here are our poses holding some not so local insects.

We also wanted to see if we could capture some local animals on a trail cam. Mr. Noble offered the use of his trail cam and it was placed on animal trails near Hamburger Hill in the Gairdner Subdivision.  It captured pictures of several deer, both day and night.  We would like to experiment with the use of the trail cam next term and we hope to capture a secondary or tertiary consumer. After Spring Break we will use the Demonstration Forest for our next camera placement.

Food Web Inquiry Project – Aspire Scientist Visit

Our ASPIRE Program’s Lead Scientist from UBC, Matthew Gilbert, visited RL Angus the week before Spring Break. He helped trace the flow of energy through our local food web.  To the left is our finished product. It took a bit of trial and error before we decided on how we would display our final product.

Working on our Food Web.Tracing the flow of energy...

We also displayed local artifacts and models related to how the different plants and animals in our food web are, (or have been) used in Fort Nelson.  We had some prior knowledge of the uses of our food web, however, next term, we plan to invite speakers into our school to help RL Angus become more knowledgeable about our local plants and animals and their role in our community.  By focusing on our local food web and involving local experts we hope to help our school develop more “Place – Conscious” learning activities that will lead to a deeper appreciation of our community and nature in general.

As a group we have taken on a very interesting challenge. We will have the opportunity to influence the direction of some of the learning that happens at R.L. Angus next term. Where it will take us… we will see.

 Inquiry Project –  Creating Place Based Learning Opportunities 

In order to keep learning authentic…we decided that we would take the opportunity to use what the students at R.L. Angus were already studying, and add to the learning by inviting local experts to share their knowledge and passion.  Since a school wide Bridge Building Competition, was already being planned to take place on May 3rd, 2019 we hoped to make the challenge more meaningful by providing a speaker series the week prior to building.

Inviting Engineers!Ms. Froese, our principal organized the first speakers which were the local engineers.
The Engineers outlined the Bridge Building Challenge rules and explained the design constraints. Later they would return to test the strength of each bridge.

Inviting Mr. Earl Brown

We thought it would be interesting to learn about the local history of bridges in and around Fort Nelson. We knew Mr. Brown liked history and that he was involved with the museum.We emailed Mr. Brown and informed him that RLA students were doing a School Wide Bridge Building Challenge. He was very enthusiastic about sharing local history with the students of R.L. Angus.
The school found Mr. Brown's stories about how the Muskwa Bridge was originally built fascinating. He even brought in an actual piece of the original bridge. He also found direct quotes from an engineer who was working on the original bridge.

Inviting Chief Curtis Dickie

We wanted to invite Chief Curtis Dickie because people admire his craftsmanship when it comes to woodwork, his dedication when it comes to being a leader (like being the chief), and his skills on the trapline.

We emailed Chief Curtis Dickie and explained that RLA students were doing a School Wide Bridge Building Challenge and that it would will take time, focus and patience.
When Chief Dickie came, he talk about how he developed his carving skills over the years and what it takes to succeed at being a master carver. We hope that Chief Curtis Dickie talk about craftsmanship would inspire some students to apply some elements of craftsmanship to the bridge building challenge.

EVERY SPECIES COUNTS!
We also also invited local guest speakers who were linked to our district-wide Earth Day “Every Species Counts” Challenge.

Inviting Mr. Harrison Dickie

We wanted Mr. Harrison Dickie to come in and talk about Herbicide Use in Fort Nelson. Mr. Dickie's company is called, "Elevate Energy Services Ltd."
Students were impressed with the depth of knowledge Mr. Dickie had on the topic of invasive plants. He explained how the products he uses is able to target specific species and eliminate them.
He also talked about the environmental effects of improper uses of spraying herbicides in the past.

Inviting Mr. Steve Lindsey

Inviting Mr. LindseyMr. Lindsey is a Bee Keeper
Steve Lindsey, a bee keeper was invited to talk to the grade sevens about the challenges of raising honeybees and his thoughts on what threatens the health of bees. Students enjoyed learning about the interesting life cycle of the honey bee.