Food Webs: Cycling of Matter & Flow of Energy Activity for Kids

How It Works

In this demonstration, you will notice that the balloons fill up with gas. That gas is made by a type of fungus called yeast. Yeast is also a decomposer that breaks down large molecules like sugar into smaller molecules that can be reused in an ecosystem. One of the molecules that yeast produces is carbon dioxide, which collects in the balloons. The more sugar molecules we gave the yeast, the more carbon dioxide they made.