Student Exploration: Prairie Ecosystem

A. Prior Knowledge Questions: Answer the following questions.

1.  Name an animal found on the prairie that would be considered a carnivore. ______

2.  Predict the outcome if a consumers food source is decreased and/or eliminated ______

B. Log into Gizmo: Enter into the Gizmo website (www.explorelearning.com). Log into the Gizmo using your login information (if you have not created your account, see me for a worksheet). Launch the “Prairie Ecosystem” Gizmo

Activity B:
Making a food chain / Get the Gizmo ready:
·  Click Reset. /

Question: How do animals affect the prairie ecosystem?

1.  Form hypotheses: What do you think each animal in the food chain eats? (Experiment with the Gizmo to help you make your hypotheses.)

Prairie dogs eat ______. Ferrets eat ______. Foxes eat ______.

2.  Explain hypotheses: How did you arrive at the above hypothesis? (use 2-3 complete sentences.) ______

3.  Predict: Based on your hypotheses, predict how the changes below will affect the other animals. Write either “increase” or “decrease” next to each “P” (for “prediction”) in the table.

Change / Grass / Prairie dogs / Ferrets / Foxes
Add
prairie dogs / P:
______
A: / P:
______
A: / P:
______
A:
Add ferrets / P:
______
A: / P:
______
A: / P:
______
A:
Add foxes / P:
______
A: / P:
______
A: / P:
______
A:

4.  Test: Click Reset.

A.  Add as many prairie dogs as the Gizmo allows.

B.  Click Advance year once.

C.  Record the effects (“increase” or “decrease”) on the other three organisms in the table next to “A” (for “actual”).

D.  Then click Reset

E.  Repeat steps A-D for both the ferrets and foxes.

5.  Analyze: In a food chain, each animal eats only one other animal or plant. Based on your experiments, what is the food that each animal eats? Explain how you know.

Prairie dogs eat ______. Ferrets eat ______. Foxes eat ______.

Explain: ______

______

______

6.  Apply: Now complete the Prairie Ecosystem food chain. Arrows point toward the animal that is eating. For example, “Mouse ® Hawk” would mean that the mouse is eaten by the hawk.

______® ______® ______® ______