Teach Biodiversity in Food Webs With a Dice Roll Game

Let’s do it with a game!  My food web, dice roll biodiversity game helps students understand that man-made or natural events can cause serious consequences in a food web. They will realize that removing even one animal or plant from the food web can cause a harmful loss of biodiversity.

You will want to teach about basic food webs and food chains before this activity so the students have an understanding of the interconnectivity in an ecosystem. I usually do this after I have completed the food web yarn activity.

Drawing the Food Web

Students start by drawing lines on the food web, either lightly with a pencil, or on a device such as an iPad or Chromebook. They are given a list of food chains and their job is to connect the animals and plants. My students prefer to use a different color for each food chain with colored pencils, or colored lines on the iPad. 

Once students have created their web, you might want to have a discussion about which plants or animals have the most lines connected to them. Have them make predictions as to which plants or animals, in the food web, are the most vulnerable in terms of being affected by many other organisms. 

Time to Bring Out The Dice

After students draw the food web, they will roll 2 dice on the table. They will get a number between 2 and 12. When they get their number, they should look at the chart of man-made and natural events to determine what to do next.

Students will read what happened during the event, and then the instructions will tell them to delete the lines between the affected plants and animals. (This is why if they are using pencils they should use them very lightly so they are easier to erase).

 For example, in the rainforest game, if the student’s dice adds up to six, they look on the chart for #6. It reads “An area of Cocoa trees are cut down for a new mine. Delete the lines connecting the Howler Monkeys and the Cocoa tree. Delete the line between the Cabybara and the Cocao tree.”

Another example from the African Savanna… “#10- A drought hits the savanna and Zebras need a lot of water to drink to survive. Delete the lines connecting the Zebra and the Cheetah and between the Zebra and the Lion.”

Students will roll the dice again to get a new event.  They will delete the lines as they are instructed on the chart. You may decide how many times they roll the dice. I usually stop at four rolls so that there’s still part of the food web remaining.

Great Discussions About the Biodiversity in Food Webs

What I really love about this activity is that each group gets different results! Even if you play it another time, they will still get different results because of the roll of the dice.

Have students look closely at their altered web and answer questions about what has happened.  What do they think will be the consequences of those erased connections? 

What Happens To the Biodiversity of the Food Web When An Invasive Species is Added?

I have a very similar product that, instead of man-made or natural events, we discuss invasive species.  As the students roll the dice, they look at specific invasive species that harm native species in multiple ways. I have these games for the Desert, Deciduous Forest and the Rainforest.

Conclusion

Teaching about biodiversity is important and something very few people think about.  The smallest change in the food web can shift the entire ecosystem! You could conclude with having students research other events, either man made or natural, that may affect the ecosystem you are discussing. 

I have the biodiversity dice roll game for the Deciduous Forest, Ocean, Tundra, Rainforest, African Savanna, and Desert.