EXPLORE ACTIVITY 4:

What happens to Matter and Energy in a Tropical Rainforest: Nutrient Cycling, the Food Chain and Food Web

Designing an Experiment:

Nutrient Cycling: Composting Leaf Litter

Objectives:
Students will understand how dry leaves can still be recycled and be useful for other organisms such as plants.

Students will be able to make a compost out of leaf litter and the will be aware of how to make this organic fertilizer.
Students will observe the decomposition process and monitor the rate of breakdown.

Materials:
Carbon materials (dry leaves- 2 cups, newspaper -1 cup) Nitrogen materials (grass clippings, food scraps) Water Air Clear 2-Liter plastic bottle with lid 2 cups of garden soil Clear tape Scissors Marker gloves

Method:
1. Cut around the bottle neck to form a flip top lid (large enough to pour the ingredients in). 2. Pour 2-3 cm of soil into the bottom of the bottle. 3. Using the spray bottle, moisten the soil. 4. Add 2-3 cm of fruit and vegetable scraps on top of the soil. 5. Add another 1 cm layer of soil.

6. Using gloves, sprinkle with 1/3 of the fertilizer over the soil. 7. Add a layer of leaves and grass. 8. Cover with another 1 cm layer of soil. 9. Lay moist newspaper over the soil. 10. Repeat steps 4-9. 11. Tape the top of the bottle closed.

11. Mark the top of the compost on the side of the bottle. 13.
14.

Place bottles in a sunny spot.

Once a week, mark the height of the compost on bottle and observe the changes in volume and rate of decomposition.

Results:
During the waiting process, the soil either gets wet or too dry. If the soil is too dry you can take the lid of and let it dry. During the times the soil is dry we spray it with little water to moisten it. After 2-3 months the height of the soil together with the compost became lower than the original height, the leaf mulch has become powder and there are healthy earthworms growing in the compost.

Conclusions:
In this activity, we therefore conclude that the results were seen to be effective that it help to serve as fertilizer for the soil to make it healthier. This is one way to show that gardeners should be using organic fertilizer such as these leaves in order to make the soil healthy compared to those inorganic ones containing different chemicals which may be dangerous for the plants.

Questions:
1. What happened to the leaves, food scraps and to the paper? 2. Did the overall volume of the compost increase or decrease over the period of observation? 3. Did you see any mould or fungi growing in the compost? 4. What do you prefer using organic fertilizer for the soil or the inorganic ones? Why? 5. How can you encourage gardeners to use organic fertilizers rather than the inorganic fertilizers?

Designing a Classroom Activity:

Food Chain and Food Web

Objectives:
Students will research key facts about selected rainforest plants and animals Students will simulate typical food webs found in tropical rainforests Students will demonstrate and explain the food web

Students will understand how species in a rainforest are interrelated and interdependent.

Materials:
6-10 ft length of colored yarn for each player

poster paper or reused materials suitable for organism name tags (I.D.'s) a sun-hat for the student chosen to be the sun
markers or crayons safety pins

Method:
1. Group the class with 15 members each. 2. Choose a large unobstructed "play" area in the classroom or on school grounds. 3. Each member of the group will pick their particular role in the food chain/web such as the sun, plants, animals and decomposers. 4. Each student has his/her name tag of his/her role in the food chain/web. The "Sun" (yellow hat!) is in the middle of the game area. "Plants" stand around and near the sun; students portraying animal position themselves in an outer circle around the plants.

5. The teacher will signal to form a food web/chain after he/she tells the class which producers (plants) should form the food web first. Then students who think they should be involved in that food web should connect themselves by using the yarn to the organism that they need in order to survive. 6. For example, the teacher said cattail which is a plant that is being eating by crickets, then the student who picked the cricket should connect himself to the plant and so as other organism who eat the cricket and so on and so forth until it reaches the decomposition. 7. They will be given 3 minutes to form the food chain/ then the leader of each group will explain why they connected those organisms together. The first group who completed the task with correct organization wins.

Results:
The students understood the organization of the food web, the reasons why the organisms are connected in such a way that some animals feed at different levels in the food chain , how decomposers work and also how each organism in a rainforest needs each other in order to survive. Aside from this basic knowledge they also developed a sense of cooperation towards their group. All in all, they have learned a lot through this activity and at the same time they enjoyed doing this as well together with their classmates

Conclusions:
In this activity, the students learned that a food web is made up of two or more interconnected food chains. Like what they did in this game, they connect themselves to those who they need in order to survive, it shows the food relationships among organisms in a community. It also explains that in a tropical rainforest the food web is more complex and more complicated than the simple food chains.

Questions:
1. What is a food web? How is the sun important in a food web? 1. Explain the food web/chain that you have constructed a while ago in this activity. Identify the tropic level of each organism in the food web. 2. How would you explain the amount of energy level flowing from the food chain? 3. What is the importance of decomposers in a food web? Cite examples of decomposers. 4. If one organism in a food web is gone, how would it affect the food chain/ food web? Cite an example.