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Student Activity - Constructing food webs
Activity idea
In this activity, students construct a food web using string and pictures. Their web will show the network of species in the ecosystem that is supported by honeydew produced by scale insects.
Instructions
Honeydew insects live in the bark of beech trees and produce small drops of a sweet liquid (honeydew). This liquid is food for a huge range of creatures including birds, insects and fungi.
In this activity, you need to see if you can figure out all the different animals and fungi that feed on honeydew. For example, birds feed on both honeydew and beetles so you would have a piece of string that joins the bird card to both the honeydew card and the beetle card. Make as many links as you can!
Hint: It might help if you watch the video of Rosa Henderson from Landcare Research talking about the honeydew ecosystem.
What you will need
- printed copies of the food web cards
- lengths of brightly coloured string to show the links between different organisms in the food web
- Blu-Tack or similar to fix the string to the cards
What to do
- Spread out the food web cards and then try to connect the cards together. For example, you could have a piece of string that goes from the honeydew to sooty mould. The mould is eaten by beetles, so you would need another piece of string from the mould to beetles. See how many links you can make – the more connections and the bigger you can make your food web, the better!
- You could also try constructing the food web with and without wasps. Remember that wasps will eat all of the honeydew, so there will be only one piece of string coming from the honeydew card and going to the wasp. What does this mean for the rest of your ecosystem?
- Make more cards for other species to add to the food web. (You will need to do some research on other species that are found in the New Zealand bush.) How big can you make your ecosystem?
Questions
- We have included a card for flowers or nectar that are only available in spring. What might the birds eat when the nectar isn’t available?
- Do all birds eat beetles? What else could they eat in the bush?
