On March 11th, 12th and 13th, EcoReach visited Oglethorpe Elementary School to teach fourth grade students all about ecosystems, biodiversity and food webs! Students were first shown an ecosystem presentation that broke down the different important components of an ecosystem, like the biodiversity that should exist and how altering with an ecosystem’s biodiversity can have drastic impacts on its structure and food system.
Next, students were divided into two groups to play Ecosystem Jenga! This game consisted of a regular stack of Jenga blocks which were color coordinated according to different plant and animal trophic levels. Detritivores were colored brown and placed at the bottom of the tower, examples being “worms” and “fungi.” Next, primary producers were colored green and placed on top of the decomposers, with examples being “shrub” and “grass.” Blocks colored yellow were the herbivores, placed on top of the primary producers, with examples like “grasshopper” and .” Lastly, carnivores were colored red and placed on top of the herbivores. The pdf copy of instructions for this game are linked here.
Lastly, students were shown a presentation all about wetland ecosystems. Students learned about specific types of wetlands and how they differentiated, as well as plants and animals they might find within each one.
Thank you to the fourth grade teachers at Oglethorpe Elementary School who had us out and to all of our volunteers! Be on the lookout for some of our upcoming volunteer events!
Interested to find out about upcoming programs and opportunities with EcoReach? Email us at ecoreachuga@gmail.com for more information!
