LibGuides: Educator Guide: Eat or be Eaten: Eat or be Eaten Educator Guide

Eat or be Eaten

Tips to Come Prepared

Before you visit the Genovesi Environmental Study Center (GESC) with your class, review the Educator's Guide to prepare for your students.

Read the Essential Questions (p. 1) and Connections to Standards (p. 2) to decide how you want to link your curriculum with your field trip
Complete the Pre-Visit Lesson with your class activating student interest and engagement
Come to GESC ready to engage and learn with our experiential, hands-on field trip program, Eat or be Eaten

Library Finds

Pond Circle by Betsy Franco On a summer night by a small pond, all seems still. But a closer look reveals a world of activity--mayflies dart, beetles dive, frogs spring, skunks shuffle, and owls swoop. As a young girl watches, the circle of life unfolds. Betsy Franco's rhythmic, cumulative text makes this a lively read-aloud, and rich, luminous paintings by Stefano Vitale capture the bold beauty of nature. Young readers will be inspired to journey into their own backyards and discover the wonder of the living, breathing world around them.
Swamp Chomp by Lola M. Schaefer This simple and elegant nonfiction picture book introduces young scientists to food chains.
Owl vs. Mouse by Mary Meinking This book shows readers the battle that occurs when an owl tries to eat a mouse.

Essential Questions

What is ecology?
How does energy flow through an ecosystem?
What are the four types of consumers?
Why do scientists study ecology?

Our Educator Guide

Eat or be Eaten Educator Guide

Sora eBooks

Access these free ebooks by signing in to the Sora app with your NYC DOE credentials.

Pass the Energy, Please! by Barbara Shaw McKinney; Chad Wallace (Illustrator) Learning becomes fun with this book about the food chain and transfer of energy connecting all life on earth. Amazing artwork will inspire children in classrooms and at home to appreciate the world around us and feel part of it all. Each of nature's creatures "passes the energy" in its own unique way. In this upbeat rhyming story, the food chain connects herbivores, carnivores, insects and plants together in a fascinating circle of players. All beings on Earth from the anchovy to the zooplankton depend upon the green plant, which is the hero of the story. Barbara McKinney's special talent shines again (see also A Drop Around the World) for being able to present the science curriculum so concisely, creatively, and cleverly. Great for anyone looking for books: to teach kids about the food web and transfer of energy. that make learning fun for kids home schooling!
What Eats What in a Forest Food Chain by Lisa J. Amstutz; Zack McLaughlin (Illustrator) A temperate deciduous forest teems with life. From a tall oak tree to a turkey vulture, the living things in this books are linked together in a food chain. Each one of them needs the others in order to live. Find out what eats what in a forest!
Condor Comeback by Sy Montgomery; Tianne Strombeck (By (photographer)) *Winner of the 2021 Green Earth Book Award* Sibert Medalist, National Book Award Honoree, andNew York Timesbest-selling author Sy Montgomery turns her formidable talents to the story of California condors and the scientists who have fought against their extinction in this installment in the award-winning Scientists in the Field series.   In April of 1987 the last wild California condor was captured and taken to live in captivity like the other twenty-six remaining birds of its kind. Many thought that the days were over of of this remarkable, distinguished bird that had roamed the skies of North and Central American for thousands of years.   Sy Montgomery employs her skill for on-the-ground reporting, shrewd observation, and stunning narrative prose to detail the efforts of scientists, volunteers, and everyday citizens to get California condors back in the wild. In particular, Montgomery profiles employees at the Santa Barbara Zoo who have worked tirelessly to raise abandoned chicks, nurse sick birds back to health, and conduct research that can support legislation to ban what is probably the largest threat to the existence of the wild condor: lead bullets. In turns affectionate and frustrated, hopeful and heartbreaking, Montgomery's powerful prose does justice to these ancient, sociable, and elegant creatures.   Complete with world-class, full-color photography and helpful sidebars that provide details such as the history of the bird's fight back from extinction, the dangers of lead poisoning, and the relationship of condors to the Chumash nation, Condor Comeback is an inspiring story of groundbreaking science, perseverance, and cooperation.

Eat or be Eaten

Materials for Pre-Visit Lesson

Materials for Post-Visit Lesson

Exciting Ecology Facts!

Adult tigers eat approximately 40 pounds of fresh meat in one sitting. Talk about carnivores!
Mushrooms are excellent decomposers. In addition to decomposing organic matter, they can break down pesticides, paint, plastic, and petroleum.
Carnivorous plants, like the Venus flytrap, use photosynthesis to make glucose, but also must capture animals to take in nutrients their soil lacks, making them producers and consumers.
In Antarctica, shrimp-like animals called krill are a vital part of the food web because the vast majority of the region’s consumers feed on them. Krill are considered a keystone species because without them the food web would fall apart.
Dragonflies are master predators. They catch 95% of their prey whereas lions only catch 40%.

Connections to Standards

NEW YORK CITY
K-8 SCIENCE SCOPE AND SEQUENCE
Grade 3: Unit 4: Plant and Animal Adaptations
Grade 4: Unit 1: Animals and Plants in their Environment
Grade 5: Unit 4: Exploring Ecosystems

NEW YORK STATE P-12 SCIENCE LEARNING STANDARDS
Third Grade
3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Fourth Grade
4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
4-LS1-2. Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Fifth Grade
5-PS3-1. Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the Sun.
5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants (producers), animals (consumers), decomposers, and the environment.