UW science outreach
The Lindroth lab participated in Saturday Science at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. It was our first chance to teach our new “Elements of Food Webs” lesson.
We’ve developed educational materials and hands-on activities to teach students about concepts in Biology and Chemistry through the “Elements of Food Webs”. Lessons explore feeding relationships among species. Students learn about the transfer of energy and elements from the sun to plants, from plants to insect herbivores, and from insect herbivores to insect predators.
To illustrate food webs to kids and their families, we brought in some live specimens of aspen trees, aphids, ladybugs, and ants. Aphids eat sap from aspen, which is rich in sugar, and ladybugs are predators of aphids. Luckily, some aphids have ant bodyguards for protection. Ants feed on “honeydew”, a sugary substance that aphids secrete. In turn, ants protect aphids from predators.
Here’s a photo highlight from the event that the kids took using our digital microscope!
