Save the Animals!

INCOMING NEWS!!

You are a wildlife scientist that works around the world helping endangered species. You have discovered that many animals will be extinct soon, so you are called to fronteir to help. Your job is to learn about and find a possible solution to saving these animals. You also will be tasked with figuring out a solution for helping these animals flourish once again. What will you do to help save these endangered animals from becoming extinct?

For this assignment, your task will be to persuade the people of the world that something needs to be done in order to keep the animals from going extinct. you will need to find expository text online to write a short letter, to clearly explain the characteristics of animals and how they are connected to the environment as well as how they affect others. Explain how the characteristics you find can be altered to lower the risk of this species extinction. Create your own creative poster model as a visual to catch the eye of your audience.

LETS GET STARTED!!

1. You will be split up into groups of two.

2. As a group you will watch a video on extinct and endangered species and read the article on endangered elephants.

> http://www.brainpopjr.com/science/conservation/extinctandendangeredspec…

> http://discovermagazine.com/2013/nov/12-elephant-crossfire

3. Read through steps four and five and decide who will do which part. One person should make a list for three and the other person should make a list for 4.

4. Choose an Endangered Species you want to work with on your groups project.

5. Make a list of characteristics your animal has naturally to survive in it's environment. Search the web for your answers.

6. Make a list of how the environment can affect your animal and eventually force them into extinction. Search the web for your answers.

7. After making your two separate list, share with your partner the different things you read about your animal and their habitats. Think about the similarities or differences you wrote down. You should connect your two notes together and talk about how they relate.

8. Fill out the graphic organizer that is provided to help you organize your thoughts and ideas.

9. Once you have your ideas it is time to write your letter and make a poster model. Once person should write the letter and the other should do the poster. Keep in mind you will still need to help each other through both parts of this assignment.

10. Turn it your poster and letter.

Your performance will be evaluated using the persuasive letter and the project model. They will both be graded on creativity, content, and grammar. The rubric is as follows:

Now that you have finished, you should now be able to understand what endangered species are, and know how to connect an animal's characteristics with its environment. You can now come up with your own ideas on how to solve these problems, and learn what others are doing.

There are many animals that are endangered today. There are many more out there in need of our help. If this topic interest you to go further, it may be a good idea to look up some reasons of why some animals are extinct today to connect them with endangered animals now.

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/

Learning Objective: By the end of this WebQuest, students will be able to explain and persuade how animal characteristics and the environment connect to affect the possibilities of being endangered.

This webquest is intended for 4th grade students. 

It is a science activity that involves students to work through multiple expository text to for an understanding of their topic. They will be doing this by filling out graphic organizers. This enables students to search the web and find information about their animals. They will write a letter to persuade the world why it is so important to save their animals species and the causes and effects their animal has on the world and its environment.

Students will also put together a creative poster of their species that will help their audience further be persuaded to support their cause.