This activity focuses on the function of decomposers in food webs using a
modified game of tag that simulates the role of decomposers in converting dead plants/animals (organic matter) to nutrients for living plants/animals in an ecosystem.

This is a modified game of tag, where students play different functional groups in the ecosystem: decomposers, living plants and animals, and dead plants and animals (organic matter). Different rounds with slightly different roles and rules illustrate key concepts about decomposers.

View Lesson
Organization
University of Tennessee
Discipline
Life Sciences
Grade Level
3-5
6-8
Lesson Area
Soil Biology
Lesson Type
Activity
Lesson Keywords
Decomposition
Decomposers
Detritovores
Detritus

Next Generation Science Standards

Grade Discipline Core Idea
3-5 LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

The food of almost any animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants, while decomposers restore some materials back to the soil.
3-5 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

Matter cycles between the air and soil and among organisms as they live and die. 
3-5 LS2.C: Ecosystem dynamics
6-8 LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

Organisms and populations are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors, any of which can limit their growth. Competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems but the patterns are shared.
6-8 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. Food webs model how matter and energy are transferred among producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem.
6-8 LS2.C: Ecosystem dynamics