schools.reep.org - Primary Resources: Activity 1





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PRIMARY RESOURCES: ACTIVITY 1 - FOOD WEBS

AIM

To establish the basic principles that:

All things are linked together in systems of energy exchange.
Disruption to one element in the system has consequences for the system as a whole.
To show this principle reflected in the teachings of faith groups.

MATERIALS NEEDED

Pens, pencils and crayons
Sheets of A4 paper/card
Reference books dealing with pond life

PART A - PERSONAL WEBS

Divide the class into pairs. Give each pair a card with the name of a pond animal on it. Make sure there is a good range of subjects, e.g. paramecia, cyclops, blood-worms, flat-worms, water slaters, water-boatmen, minnows, sticklebacks, dragon flies, frogs, newts, water-shrews, mallards, herons etc..
Ask the children to research their particular animal. On one side of a sheet of paper they should draw what the creature looks like. On the other side, write some facts they have discovered e.g..
1. How big are they?
2. Where do they get their energy from?
3. What is their life-cycle like?
4. Have they any weird and wonderful habits?
Then introduce various traumas that could disturb the life of the pond, e.g..
1. It's a very hot summer and the pond dries up. What will happen to the different animals? Some can escape, others are doomed. Which?
2. Fertilizers from a farm wash into the water. Water weed grows and clogs the pond. What will happen to the fish? Will the birds leave? When the plants die the process of decay will deplete the pond of oxygen; which creatures will survive (bloodworms, water slaters)? Which will die? (Eventually the pond will dry out and even those species which thrived in the abundant decay will die).
3. A house builder buys the land for a 'quality housing development'. What happens?
4. Trees grow around the pond. In autumn, leaves cascade into the water. What happens?

PLENARY

Look at the good points: the way in which the system can sustain itself year after year - a kind of balance can be reached.
Draw attention, also, to the different kinds of disaster that occur to the pond. Some are 'natural', others are 'man-made'.
The 'natural' disasters help to make the point that nothing in the world is stable: change and uncertainty rule. All species become extinct eventually: Do the children think that humans will join the list of the lost? How do they feel about that? Sad?

RELATING TO FAITH

Look at the way Buddhism understands change and decay, the passing of all things. Read a Buddhist story such as 'The Story of Kisa Gotami' (in Buddhist Scriptures, Anil Gooewardene, Heinemann Educational pp.26-27) who, when her son dies, asks the Buddha for some medicine to bring him back to life. She is told to find mustard seeds from a house where no-one has died. She can't, of course. She learns that change and decay is inevitable, that they happen to everything, but also that death can offer release to Nirvana.

See also 'The Death of a Teacup', (in Buddhist Tales, Sherab Chodzin, Barefoot Books, p.68) in which a young pupil smashes his master's cup. He hides the fragments and then asks his master 'Why do people die?'. 'That is just natural,' says the teacher. 'Everything only has so long to live and then it must die.' At this point the boy shows his master the broken cup.
Go on to discuss the fact that some disasters are caused by humans. Do children think that something should be done to stop such things happening? Can they think of such things? Even 'natural' problems can be tackled in some way e.g. if autumnal leaf fall is cleared from a pond, the pond will survive longer.
Judaism and Christianity are often accused of having an exploitative attitude to the natural world (on the basis of Genesis 1.28: 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it') Read an illustrated version of the story of Adam and Eve - emphasising both the primal vegetarianism and the way in which Adam (humankind) had to tend the Garden of Eden actively.

Read also a vision of the future; e.g. Isaiah 11: 6-9, which forsees a time when Eden will be restored. Both Judaism and Christianity emphasise that, until this time, humankind must be active on the side of goodness and justice.