Biology Lessons Part 2: Population Biology

Lesson 2.3: Chaparral Community Knowledge Mapping Teachers' Guide

Grade Level	Prospective and Practicing K-8 Teachers; may be adapted for use in elementary classes.
Time	Exercises 1-4 take approximately 30 minutes.
	If possible, take your students out to observe and study a local natural environment, whether it be a canyon, woods, the seashore, or simply an empty lot. Ask them to record all organisms they see there, plant, animal and fungal. Taking photographs of them may be useful. Field guides may also help.
Objectives	Once you have completed these exercises you should be able to:
	1.	Create a web of feeding relationships among organisms in a local natural environment.
Background Information	Wherever there is a community of organisms, there is a food web.
Exercise 1	Observing a Natural Environment
	With guidance from your teacher, observe and study a local natural environment, whether it be a canyon, woods, the seashore, or simply an empty lot. Record all organisms you see there, plant, animal and fungal. If possible, take a photograph of each organism. Field guides may be useful in identifying each one. All students in the class should pool their observations and identifications.
	Gather whatever information you can on the local fauna and flora and their feeding habits (or ask your students to do this). They probably won't observe most of the animals in a single visit to the site.
Exercise 2	Library Research
	Gather whatever information you can on the local fauna and flora and their feeding habits.
	Ask your students to combine their observations and library research to construct a SemNet-based food web that represents their best estimates about who is eating whom in this local natural environment, and to capture other relations as well. If you have a digital camera or scanner, they can paste some of their pictures into SemNet (so long as they are about wallet-sized).
Exercise 3	Construct a Food Web
	Construct a rough food web using a large board with each organism on a separate sticky. Draw relationships in pencil. Include other types of relations as well as feeding relations, such as "provides shelter for / receives shelter from" or "pollinates / pollinated by." Combine your observations and library research to do this. When you are satisfied, construct a SemNet-based food web that represents your best estimates about the relationships among organisms in this local natural environment.