Conduct a local field observation to identify producers, consumers, decomposers, and feeding relationships in a real nearby ecosystem.
All this ecosystem thinking becomes real when you step outside and look closely at an actual place: a backyard, a park, a vacant lot, even a few square feet of sidewalk crack. This week investigation is a field study: choose a small local area, observe it carefully, and record every living thing, or evidence of one, that you find.
For each organism or clue, try to classify its role, producer, consumer, or decomposer, and think about what it might eat or be eaten by. Evidence counts too; a chewed leaf, a spider web, a pile of droppings, or a mushroom are all clues about the food web even when you do not see the organism itself.
Mastery looks like: They can conduct a short field observation, correctly classify what they find, and build a simple food web from real local evidence.
Common stumbles: Only counting organisms they can identify by name and ignoring useful evidence; forgetting to record location, date, or time details.