South Carolina Aquarium Online Curriculum, 3rd

Pre-Visit Activities : Animals are Consumers : Assessment
Third - Fifth Grade Online Curriculum : Communities

Assessment
Have students keep a Consumer Log, a record of everything they eat (consume) for one day. After the log is finished, have the student write after each food item whether they would be considered a carnivore or herbivore for eating each item. If they looked at all the food they ate, would they be considered a carnivore, a herbivore or an omnivore.

Students will choose two items of food they ate that were listed on their food log, and use these to create two food chains that can either be written or drawn. Tell students that each food chain should contain only three or four organisms. Each food chain will start with the sun and end with the student. The student will label each organism as a producer or consumer. Organisms that are labeled as consumers, will also be labeled as either a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore.
For example:
One of Little Johnny's food items was a hamburger. His food chain could look like this:

sun [ grass
producer
[ cow
consumer/ herbivore [ Little Johnny
consumer/omnivore

Scoring Rubric (Out of 10 Points):

1 point for each realistic food chain they make. (Total of 2 points)
1 point for each food chain in which producers and consumers are correctly identified (Total of 4 points)
1 point for each food chain in which herbivores, carnivores and omnivores are correctly identified (Total of 4 points)
Total: 10 points

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Cross-Curricular Extensions
Social Studies Extension
Have students compare a physical map of the world with a political map of the world. Have them determine where most cities are located, and whether they are on the coast, in forested areas, in deserts, in mountains or in polar regions. Ask them why they think the cities are located where they are? Ask them if they think the fact that humans are consumers might have something to do with the location of most cities. Lead them to the idea that because people are consumers, they need to be near food sources such as the ocean or farmable land in order to survive.

Math Extension
Food energy is measured in calories. Have students record how many calories they consume from plants and how many calories they consume from animals for one day. Using a bar graph, have them graph how many plant calories they consumed and animal calories they consumed. Compile all of the students data for a bar graph that shows how many calories the class consumed collectively from plants and animals. Determine ratios of plant calories consumed to animal calories consumed and write as percentages.

English Extension
Have students read Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Ask them if they think all of the items in the book are really things that a caterpillar would consume. Have them research what caterpillars eat, and then write and illustrate their own story like The Very Hungry Caterpillar that shows items a caterpillar in the wild would really consume if it were hungry.