Positives

• Students will love being up and moving around in this activity, and the yarn web is an impactful visual to help students understand systems.
• Students can explore how scenarios like climate change impact the food chain system.

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers will need a spool of string or yarn for this activity.
• Students should take time to learn about their organism in the activity to participate.

Differentiation

• Biology teachers can use this activity to introduce food webs.
• If you have a large class, split into two groups for the activity and come back together to discuss and reflect at the end.
• The lesson includes a few optional extension activities that can further student learning.
• This lesson is intended for New York students; however, it is easy to apply anywhere by choosing a local ecosystem. The yarn activity can also model other systems, such as the water or carbon cycle.
• Given a climate change-influenced disruption to the web, students can discuss solutions to reduce the impact on the rest of the system.