(cheerful music) (teacher laughing) (cheerful music) - [Teacher] All right, Science Kids, are you ready?

- Yeah.

- All right.

- [Narrator] When you walk into a grocery store you're surrounded by food.

As humans, we have the chance to eat so many different types of food from all over the world.

From the oceans to the rivers, to the grasslands to the forests.

Every bite you eat connects you to other living creatures that give you the energy and the nutrients you need to live and grow.

All of those connections to the things you eat and to the things that those things eat, make up what scientists would call your food web.

Food webs are everywhere.

Come along with us and trace the flow of energy in the nutrients through the organisms that live in and around a pond.

Do you think you are part of this food web?

(upbeat music) Food webs, on this episode of "Nature WY."

- [Announcer] "Nature WY" is brought to you in part by the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation.

- Our topic is food webs.

- [Student] What are food webs?

- What is a web?

- Spider's web.

- Oh, what does that look like?

What does a spider web look like, Taylor?

- Draw a few circles and then put lines through it.

And then you have a spider web.

- Oh, okay.

- [Narrator] Spiderwebs, like food webs, have a lot of connections.

In a food web each connection tells you what eats what.

The simplest food web connects creatures in a single line called a food chain.

Like when algae gets eaten by a mayfly larva that gets eaten by a fish that gets eaten by a great blue heron.

A lot of creatures find algae delicious, and fish too.

And soon all of those connections start looking like a web, a food web.

- So an important thing in food webs we wanna be thinking about is what does that thing eat?

And who eats it?

- [Narrator] Let's go to a pond and find out.

- Who wants this for lunch.

Would you like this, Nora?

- No!

(all laughing) - Are you sure?

You want that?

- No!

(all laughing) - I don't really want to eat this.

Nora doesn't want to eat it.

- [Student] I wanna eat it!

- You guys said you'd eat it.

I don't know, I'm gonna toss it.

I don't wanna eat it.

- [Narrator] But a pond snail would.

What's yucky to us might be a delightful meal for another creature.

Let's imagine we are snails and fish and other creatures in a pond.

Where would we get our energy to live?

It all starts with something that is not alive.

The energy from the sun.

(bright music) - I am going to be the sun, okay.

(sings a high note) (all laughing) I am the sunshine!

I'm sending all kinds of energy to the earth and the plants.

In our food web, you are collecting the sun's light.

So you guys are gonna use that energy from the sun and you're gonna make sugar.

- [Narrator] What?

How can a plant make sugar out of sunlight?

Plants have a bit of magic up their leaves, called photosynthesis.

Plants can catch the energy of sunlight and turn it into sugars and food for the rest of us on earth.

Nearly all life on earth depends on that magic.

Scientists call plants producers because they make their own food inside their own bodies.

Humans can't do that.

We are consumers just like this dragonfly larva.

Any creature that eats another is called a consumer.

And those consumers have special names that you may have heard before.

- Some of our animals are going to eat plants.

Do we know what that's called?

- Herbivore.

- Yes.

And we have some animals that are gonna eat other animals.

What are those called?

- Carnivore.

- Okay, good.

We have some animals that eat both.

- Omnivores.

- Yes, omnivores.

Nicely done!

What if we come across a dead animal in the road?

That's very sad.

- Oh, yeah, we have two dead deer on the side of the road.

- Oh, yes.

There are animals that will find that dead deer-- - And eat it.

- And eat it.

What are those called?

- [Student] Vultures.

- [Narrator] If you guessed scavenger, you'd be right.

Vultures and other scavengers help clean up our world.

There's another word scientists use for recyclers of the earth, like bacteria and fungi... - Decomposer.

- Decomposer.

- Yes, they're gonna break down anything in our environment that is dead.

- Dead?

- Yeah.

- [Narrator] What happens after a green living leaf falls from a tree?

- What do you think ate this leaf?

- Bacteria.

- Yeah!

And then eventually it looks more like this and a lot of that leaf has been eaten away.

- [Narrator] Decomposers like fungi and bacteria are the recyclers, helping the energy and nutrients move from dead organisms back into the living in a food web.

- I'm gonna give you a card.

What's on there?

- A mushroom.

- A mushroom.

So on the front it tells you what your organism is.

On the back, it tells you what this organism eats.

Mack is a snail.

Who eats snails?

- Fish.

- Ooh, okay, fish.

- [Student] Ooh, deer!

- Okay, grab your string, good.

What else do you eat, Taylor?

- Algae.

- Ooh, okay.

Hold on to that, yes!

Who else eats algae?

- Crayfish.

- Ooh, okay.

Nora, you're gonna hold this.

I'm gonna send this over to the frog.

Caleb, you're a frog.

What do you eat?

- Oh I eat anything that fits in my mouth!

(all laughing) - So look around-- - [Narrator] With a bunch of friends, some yarn, and a bit of make believe, we can build our own what eats what food web.

(cheerful music) - So look at this structure that we just made.

Does it look a little bit like a spiderweb?

- Yes.

- A little bit, yeah, awesome!

We're really all connected to each other.

(gentle music) (children chattering happily) (gentle music) (children laughing) - [Narrator] What happens when a healthy food web gets hurt?

Let's imagine... - In our pond we have some pollution and it kills our algae.

You're gonna have to let go of your string.

Oh, no.

So what happened to our web?

It got a little droopy, oh no.

Okay, that's unfortunate.

So now all these things that used to feed on the algae don't have anything to eat.

They're hungry.

You know what's gonna happen, frog?

I'm so sorry but there's a bad fungus and it's attacking the frogs.

So frog... - Oh no.

- Oh no!

- No!

- So sad, the frog is, has left the building.

So look at our sad food web.

Look what just happened.

And we lost two things.

We lost our algae and then we had a bacterial infection and we lost our frogs.

And now our food web is not doing very well.

- So if one plant dies, then then all the animals that eat that plant die.

And then all the animals that eat the animal who eats the plant die because they don't have any food.

And then the animals who eat those animals die.

And then, then it just keeps going on.

- [Narrator] Caleb's got it.

Healthy food webs aren't missing many pieces.

Explore a place outside.

Be a food web detective and see how many creatures and connections you can discover.

- [Student] Ooh, yeah, oh yeah!

(gentle music) - Oh, cool!

(gentle music) - [Narrator] You may not have 10 friends around to help you build a food web out of string, but you could play food web bingo all on your own.

- First, can you find a plant?

Oh, yes!

What else might eat grass?

- Dear?

- Yes!

Okay, deer would eat grass.

Something that eats meat.

What eats meat?

- Like a T-Rex.

- A T-Rex, absolutely!

- Bingo!

(cheerful music) - [Narrator] For a step-by-step guide to play food web bingo visit wyomingpbs.org/naturewy.

Food webs are all around us connecting us in all living things to the flow of energy from the sun.

Go exploring with Science Kids and us at Wyoming PBS and discover the food webs of Wyoming.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] "Nature WY" is brought to you in part by the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation.

The philanthropic arm of Rocky Mountain Power supporting the growth and vitality of our community.

Thank you Rocky Mountain Power Foundation.

- [All] Thank you, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation!