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Web of Life

Activity

Visualizing Aquatic Ecosystems

Using materials such as leaves, flowers and sticks, create different elements of an aquatic habitat, including plants and animals that you find by or in the water. Create a picture of your ecosystem with the elements that you create to show how energy and nutrients flow through the aquatic food web. Discuss how the removal or addition of any one species could impact the entire ecosystem.

Science Seed

In Memorial Park’s aquatic ecosystems, producers like water hyacinth and cattails provide oxygen, food, and shelter for small fish and insects. Consumers, such as Bluegill Sunfish and turtles, rely on these plants and smaller organisms for food. Decomposers like bacteria and fungi break down dead matter, returning nutrients to the system. Disrupting any part of this food chain—such as a loss of plants due to pollution—can affect the entire ecosystem. Without plants, fish and insects struggle, which impacts predators like birds and turtles that depend on them for food. This shows how interconnected the ecosystem is.

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earn Badges

Badges can be earned through hands-on experiences within each of the 16 branches of science, or “Science Slices.” You can earn a badge in each branch of science by doing four activities in these categories. We also encourage participants to keep a Nature Journal to record their memories, and to express themselves creatively through writing or drawing after each activity. We recommend that each child (and parent if they’d like) write or draw in a journal after each activity, with expectations of your children that match their age (the goal is self-expression, not perfection).

Explore the Memorial Park Conservancy

The mission of Memorial Park Conservancy is to preserve, restore, and enhance Memorial Park for the enjoyment of all Houstonians, today and tomorrow.

join Families in Nature

It is our vision to inspire all families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists. Becoming a member of Families in Nature will give your family the opportunity to have adventures in nature, experience field science, develop as youth conservation leaders, and make memories that will last a lifetime. Memberships are free for everyone.

Who are we?

Families in Nature works to create opportunities for nature connection with the purpose of sparking a deep love and desire to protect, conserve and restore the environment. Our mission is to connect children and their families to nature and to each other through time spent learning, playing, and volunteering outdoors. It is our vision to inspire ALL families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists.

This project was made possible by