Thank you for signing up for a virtual field trip with TERC! Here we have provided you with everything you will need to lead your students through our Aquatic Food Web field trip. Please contact us if you have any questions!
In this virtual field trip, your students will explore the changes our local food web has undergone. This interactive program features student participation via polls, games, experiments, and group discussions.
Download the following Field Trip Resources:
PDF Guide
Instructions
Part 1 (can be done ahead of time):
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Assign students a Tahoe organism, which they can represent and explore on the organism cards here: Who Lives in Lake Tahoe?
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Multiple students can have the same organism and conversely students can be in charge of multiple organisms, just be sure that all organism cards is covered at least once.
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Students will use the cards they receive to complete the following sentence prompts:
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My organism is called...
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My organism gets its energy from...
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I think __________ might eat my organism.
Part 2:
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Explore and discuss the fish feeding at the Tahoe Science Center
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Students collaborate to construct a food web of Tahoe's aquatic ecosystem by drawing arrows that show the flow of energy from organism to organism on the Food Web Jamboard.
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Students use their completed Food Web to discuss how one disruption to the Tahoe food web such as the introduction of the Mysis shrimp has multiple reactions.
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Students fill out a pre-then-post survey to assess their learning.
Optional at-home extensions:
TERC Virtual Lab Tours:
UC Davis Research: