Lesson Plan: Disruption to Ecosystems
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to deduce the impact of a change in a population on a food web and describe why toxins build up through a food chain.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- understand how the removal of one organism from a food chain or a food web can impact other organisms,
- recall that toxins such as mercury and DDT can build up in individuals in a food chain or web,
- describe the effects of toxins being present in an ecosystem, including poisoning and death,
- understand that if toxins build up in a food chain, the consumers are most likely to be affected.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- basic structures of food chains and webs.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- the role of decomposers,
- pyramids of numbers or biomass.
