Introduction

The Amazon Food Web project is a great opportunity for teachers to use technology as they meet educational standards. The project was designed for 7th grade students but can be used with older students. Teachers who plan to use this project should have some HTML experience. The templates and help page make the process very easy but HTML experience will help when problem solving with your students.

This project was part of an interdisciplinary unit I created with my team social studies teacher. Although it can stand alone as a science or technology project, the Amazon Food Web project can provide a cross disciplinary experience for your students. I also suggest the involvement of a language arts teacher. I did not do this in the initial year of the project but I plan to do so in the future.

The goal of this project was to have students incorporate technology as they applied their knowledge of food webs and the interactions of organisms within communities. I focused on the Amazon because of the vast information available on the Internet and because this project was designed to support a social studies unit on South America. The Amazon Food Web Project can also be used to provide support in creating web sites that focus on local food webs or food webs from other parts of the world. Students can do local research and scan their own pictures onto their HTML pages. You can also provide your own page of links to sites that are focused on other geographical areas, such as the African plains. If you do not focus on the Amazon you can still use The Amazon Food Web for templates, notes guidelines, and technical support.

If you are thinking of doing this project with your students and have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I gave my students reflection questions at the end of the project and student input was very positive. My students had a lot of fun working on the project and they learned a great deal.

If you do the Amazon Food Web project with your students please share your experience with me. I would like to know how the project worked for you and if you had any difficulties.

Enjoy,
Neil Battagliese
Memorial Middle School
South Portland, Maine
battagne@spsd.org

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