A chipmunk eating a berry on a tree branch
3-5

By conducting research and simulating a food web, students will take a close look at a forest ecosystem and discover ways that plants and animals are connected to each other. While this activity focuses on forests, you can also use it to study other ecosystems, such as oceans, deserts, marshes, or prairies, by substituting the appropriate information.

teachers choice award logo 2019

Project Learning Tree’s Energy in Ecosystems curriculum for grades 3-5 won a 2019 Teachers’ Choice Award for the Classroom from Learning Magazine!

Learner Objectives

  • Identify a food chain or food web that contains a particular forest organism.
  • Create a model of the forest food web.
  • Explore what happens to the food web if one of the components is no longer present.