1. Determining the Interactions of Organisms
Field of Beans
Determining the Interactions of Organisms

2. TEKS
8.11A – Describe producer/consumer, predator/prey and parasite/host relationships as they occur in food webs.
7.5C – Diagram the flow of energy through living systems, including food chains, food webs and energy pyramids.

3. Objectives Estimate the size of various populations
Create a food web and
Construct pyramids of energy of organisms within a terrestrial ecosystem.

4. Field of Beans
Pre-Lab

5. Producers/Autotrophs
Plants that make their own food through photosynthesis by the Sun’s energy.

6. Consumers/Heterotrophs
Animals that have to eat other organisms for food to get energy.

7. 3 Types of Consumers Herbivores – Animals that only eat plants
Omnivores – Animals that eat plants and other animals
Carnivores – Animals that only eat other animals (meat)

8. Decomposers/Saprotrophs
Organisms that feed on and get energy from decaying organic matter (excrement and dead organisms)
Speeds up the decaying process and puts nutrients back into the soil.

9. Food Chain
Simple model that shows one pathway of how matter and energy move through an ecosystem.

10. Energy Pyramid
An ecological pyramid that shows the flow of energy between organisms within an ecosystem.

11. Types of Pyramids

12. Trophic Level
The position in a food chain or energy pyramid that an organism occupies based on what it eats.

13. Trophic levels within a food chain.
Primary consumer
Secondary consumer
Tertiary consumer
Quaternary consumer
Fifth level consumer
Sixth level consumer
…and so on…
*Organisms can be more than one type of consumer depending on what all they eat.

14. Primary Consumer
The 1st consumer in a food chain that eats the producer
Only gets 10% of the energy created by the producer.

15. Secondary Consumer
The second consumer in a food chain that eats the primary consumer.
Only gets 10% of the 10% of energy = 1%

16. Tertiary Consumer 3rd consumer that eats the secondary consumer.
Only gets 10% of the 1% of the energy from the secondary consumer = 0.1%

17. Food Web
A complex network of many interconnected food chains and feeding relationships.
Most animals eat more than one kind of food in order to meet their energy needs therefore are part of more than one food chain.

18. Color code your food web
Color code the arrows on your food web according to the key below.
Glue your food web into your journal and illustrate the key as shown below.

19. Number 1-6 and Complete the following in your journal.
List an organism that is a producer.
Cactus, mesquite tree, grasses
Name 2 secondary consumers.
Toad, rat
Is the rattlesnake a secondary or tertiary consumer?
It’s a secondary and a tertiary consumer
Would the praying mantis be considered a carnivore or a herbivore?
A carnivore because it only eats other animals
Where would you place bacteria and fungi in this web? Why?
Anywhere, bacteria and fungi are decomposers so they break down any decaying organic matter.
If the producers in this food web have 140,000 kilocalories of energy, how much would be available to the primary consumer?
14,000 (only 10%)

20. Introducing the Field of Beans
Part I
Introducing the Field of Beans

21. Part 1: Introducing the Field of Beans
Look at the picture of the organisms that you were given and glue it into your journal.
Read the descriptions of each organism on the class copy of “Animal Descriptions.
Using each animal’s description, accurately construct a food web by connecting the organisms on your picture using arrows showing how energy is transferred from one organism another.
Give each student a copy of the picture of organisms.

22. Color Code your arrows on your food web using the key below

25. Sampling the Field of Beans
Part II
Sampling the Field of Beans

26. Population Sampling
The process of taking a small group of organisms that is representative of the entire population. The sample must have sufficient size to warrant statistical analysis.
This is how biologists estimate the population of different species in an area.

27. Part II: Sampling The Field of Beans
Random Sampling
A method of population sampling where sample sites are selected at random to be counted.
*Each square represents a sample size in an area that is 100 square miles

28. Part II: Radom Sampling the Field of Beans
To the right is an area of land. Rather than send 100 students out to count the organisms in the entire area, the teacher sent 5 to randomly sample the population. Students counted the organisms in the labeled sections.

29. Pre-Lab questions Complete the following in your journal.
Determine and record the size of the population using random sampling by counting the organisms in the bolded areas.
Each dot represents an organism

30. Pre-Lab Question #1 There are 9 organisms in the 5 sample sites.
Sample site = 1/36 (there are 36 blocks in the entire area)
1.8 x 36 = 64.8 organisms total

31. Pre-Lab Question #2
Compare your estimation to the actual size of the population.
Count everyone of the dots in the entire area.
There are a total of 40 organisms. Our estimation was more than the actual #.

32. Pre-Lab Question #3
List at least 2 ways to improve this method of sampling.
Increase the number of samples taken.
Increase the area covered by each sample site.
Spread the samples out across the site more evenly.

33. Pre-Lab Question #4
In a forest that measures 6 miles by 6 miles, a sample was taken to count the number of red oak trees in the forest. The number of trees counted in the grid is shown. The grids where the survey was taken were chosen randomly. Determine how many red oak tress are in this forest using the random sampling technique.

34. Pre-Lab Question #4 con’t
35 trees counting in 5 sample sites
Divide 35 by 5 = 7
There are 36 total sample sites
Multiple 7 x the 36 total sites = 252
35 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑠 5 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑠 , = 7
7 x 36 = 252 red oak trees

35. Pre-AP: Field of Beans Sampling Lab Activity
Materials
Beans
Organism Identification cards
2 Dice
Butcher paper divided into 12 plots
Calculator
Data Table 1
Pre-AP Only

36. Procedures Your “Field of Beans” is divided into 12 sections.
Roll 1 di and then identify and count the number of organisms in that sample site and record in Data table 1
Roll 1 di 2 more times and record the numbers in the data table. If you get the same number as before, roll again. (do not recount the same sample site)
Roll 2 dice 3 times identifying and recording in data table 1.
Use the Organism Identification Cards to identify what organism each bean represents.

38. NOTE!!! *1 ant bean = 250 ants ** 1 plant bean = 200 plants
***1 grasshopper bean = 100 grasshoppers

39. Procedures Con’t
Once you have counted and recorded all of the organisms in each of the sample sites, find the AVERAGES (mean) of each organism and record it in Data Table 1 under “Avg”. (Add up the total number organism found in each sample site and divide by 6)
Do not round your averages
Multiple your averages for each organism by 12 and record that in Data Table 1 under “Total Number x 12”
Round this number to the nearest whole number

40. Constructing the pyramids
Part III
Constructing the pyramids

41. Part III – Constructing the Pyramids
Energy Pyramids

42. Pyramid of Numbers vs. Pyramid of Biomass
Pyramid of numbers simply shows the total number of organisms in each population.
Pyramid of biomass is based on the total amount of biomass (living matter) of each population.

43. Biomass
The total mass of a specific organism in a given area or ecosystem.
Mass of living things in an area

44. Calculating Biomass
Look at Data Table 2 and multiply the “Total Number” of each organism with the Mass given on the table.
Biomass = Number in population x Average mass of organism
Record the Biomass of each organism in Data Table 2 under “Biomass”

46. Answer key for On-Level ONLY!

47. Complete the following in your science journal
#1. Draw a food chain and energy pyramid with the organisms below. You may draw a triangular pyramid or a pyramid composed of rectangles. Identify the producer, and level of each consumer. Blue bird Caterpillar Sparrow Hawk Oak Tree

48. Practice
Uses the data table below to create a pyramid of numbers and pyramid of biomass

49. Your food chain should look like this
Oak Tree
Caterpillar
Blue Bird
Sparrow Hawk

50. Your energy pyramid should look like either one of these.
Hawk
Hawk
Blue bird
Blue bird
Caterpillar
Caterpillar
Oak Tree
Oak Tree

51. Your pyramid of numbers should look something like this.1 20
5000 1

52. Your pyramid of biomass should look like this.
1200g
10,000g
12,000g
900,000g

53. Part III – Constructing the Pyramids
Materials:
Data Table 2
Highlighter
Calculator
Procedures:
Record the total # of organisms that you calculated in Date Table 1 into Data Table 2 under the column labeled “Total Number”.

54. Set up your next notebook page as shown.
Food Chain:
Pyramid of Energy
Pyramid of Numbers
Pyramid of Biomass
Set up your next notebook page as shown.

55. Procedures Con’t
Using Field of Beans food web, locate a food chain that consists of at least 5 trophic levels. You must have had them in your Data table 1!
Draw the food chain in your journal.
Using your food chain, your are going to construct 3 pyramids.
Using a highlighter, highlight the rows that contain the organisms that you selected in your food chain on Data Table 2.

57. 1. Pyramid of Energy Copy everything provided on this page.
Label each section with the appropriate category: Producer and Primary through Quaternary consumer
Write the name of the organism from your food chain in each corresponding section.
100%
10% 1%
0.1%
0.01%
90% is used by the organism, 10% is passed to the next level

58. 2. Pyramid of Numbers
Construct your pyramid of numbers by starting with the bottom layer, in this case, the producers in your food chain. Draw the bottom layer of the pyramid as a horizontal rectangle. Continue to draw the remaining layers proportional to the previous layer.
As you can see below, the rectangles DO NOT have to be smaller than the row below.
As you are drawing your pyramid of numbers…
Using your data in Data Table 2, write the total number of organisms in each box of the pyramid as shown below
Write the name of the organism (from the food chain) next to its corresponding part of the pyramid.
5, 842, 000
708, 000
354, 000 10

59. 3. Pyramid of Biomass
Use your data from Data Table 2, start constructing this pyramid with the bottom rectangular layer. Continue to draw the remaining layers proportional to the previous layer. Remember to keep the layers in order of the food chain regardless of the size of the layer.

60. Example Data

61. Food Chain 5 Trophic Levels Cacti Grasshopper Grasshopper mouse Owl
Snake

62. Pyramid of Numbers Total Numbers: 0 – rattlesnakes 20 – burrowing owls
30 – grasshopper mice
8000 – grasshoppers
22,000 - cacti, trees, and plants

63. Pyramid of Biomass

64. Conclusion Questions
Answer the conclusion questions in your journal using COMPLETE Sentences and use proper academic vocabulary

65. Vocab: Adaptation Biomass Death/extinction Sustainability
Competition
Predation
Biodiversity
Populations
Migration
Adaptation
Death/extinction
Consumers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th)
Producers
Biotic and abiotic resources
Energy flow/pyramid
Food chain/web

66. 1.
Would you and partners agree that your population sampling was an accurate reflection of your “field of beans”? Explain why or why not.
Based on your Sampling, does your “field of beans” have a high or low diversity? Justify why you believe it’s high or low.

67. 2.
Compare and contrast your pyramid of numbers and pyramid of biomass.
How are they alike/different?
Why is it important to look at both before making a conclusion about the sustainability of the area?
What makes it sustainable?

68. 3.
Which organism(s) in the food web has the most numerous sources of food? List the organism(s) and food sources.
Why is it important for them to have multiple food sources?

69. 4.
List any organism that has a single food source, and make a prediction as to what would happen if the food source for the organism you listed is removed.

70. 5.
Describe how a natural disaster, like a drought or grass fire, would affect an herbivore, carnivore, and an omnivore in this biome.

71. 5.
Explain why an ecosystem with high biodiversity will have better recovery/ sustainability after a natural disaster that an ecosystem with low biodiversity.