Learning Intention:
We are learning about the order of food chains in a variety of habitats
We are learning about the impact that different animals have on our planet
Some of the pupils from Primary 6 and Primary 7/6 were working together as a group today and had a very interesting and thoughtful morning discussing food chains. First, we reminded ourselves about what makes up a food chain before giving examples of food chains that we knew. Next, we were given a difficult challenge. We were given pictures of 10 different animals and asked- if we had to make 3 of the animals extinct to save ourselves and all of the others, which would we choose and why? We worked in small groups and had to come up with three reasons to justify our choices which we then shared with the rest of the class. The animals we had to choose from were the lion, zebra, sea turtle, blue whale, tree kangaroo, kitten, beetle, salmon, eagle and gorilla. Although it was very tough, here are the top three animals voted for as a class and the reasons why:
Blue Whale– because it is top of its food chain so removing it wouldn’t affect other animals too much, it can kill humans and not many people eat whales so it doesn’t help us.
Beetle– in Britain, we don’t eat beetles so it doesn’t help us, there are lots of different types of insect so making one extinct wouldn’t make a huge difference to the food chain and some insects carry diseases which can make us sick or kill us.
Eagle– it is at the top of the food chain so making it extinct would save other species, some birds of prey can attack our pets and we don’t usually eat birds of prey so we wouldn’t be affected.
We had a very interesting discussion about making the kitten extinct. Although we know that it sounds very harsh and we felt bad, to begin with several of the groups said that it was the first animal that they agreed to make extinct because it isn’t an animal that lots of animals eat, and it doesn’t really help humans (some members of our group have some very messy cats who are a bit of a nuisance). However, on further discussion, we realised that cats do help some humans by providing company and love, as well as bringing us happiness. We also discussed the fact that if we were to make either cats or dogs extinct, lots of businesses would go bankrupt, e.g. pet food companies, dog walkers, groomers, cat sitters etc. Arran added that his cat is an excellent spider catcher too!
What a fantastic discussion Primary 6! 🙂
