Endangered Animals

An Online Database Exploration Lesson
for 4th Grade Science

Designed by Heather Parrish

hmparrish@hotmail.com

Introduction | Acquaint | Ask | Arrange | Apply | Evaluation |Credits

Introduction

Have you ever wondered about endangered animals? About how many there are?  What makes them endangered?  What people are doing to help them? In this activity you will try to answer these questions, and more, by using an animal database and researching endangered animals around the world.

In 1973 the Endangered Species Act was passed to protect plant and animal species that are at risk of becoming extinct.  Species are classified as "endangered" or "threatened" depending on how many are left in the wild and how severely their survival is threatened.  Endangered animals are in danger of becoming extinct in a significant area of their habitat range, while threatened animals are likely to become endangered in the future.  As of May 31, 2000 there were 1051 animal species protected under the Endangered Species Act.  In the United States alone, 368 animals are listed as Endangered and 128 are listed as threatened!

Get ready to learn about the wonderful animals that are almost gone from our world!

Acquaint Yourself

For this activity you will be using the Animal Diversity Web to research endangered animals.  To help familiarize yourself with using this database please complete the following example:

• First, click on the highlighted Animal Diversity Web link above to take you to the database
• Then, in the box next to "Quick Search" type in red wolf and click search (a list of animals will then come up)
  
• Find the red wolf narrative (it should be the first one on the list) and click on it
• Read through the information about the red wolf and find the answers to these questions:

1. Where is the red wolf found (geographic range & habitat)?
2. Why are red wolves endangered?
3. How many red wolves are left in the world?
4. What are people doing to try and save the red wolf?

• Also familiarize yourself with the layout of information presented and note that, in the green box in the top left corner, quick links to specific information about the red wolf are listed and can be used by clicking on conservation, for example.
  

After completing this example you should have found that:

• The red wolf is found in the southeastern United States in mountains, forests, and wetlands.
• The red wolf is endangered because humans blamed them for attacking their livestock and then hunted them down.
• A little more than 200 red wolves are left in the world.
• The US Fish and Wildlife Service began a captive breeding program and have been reintroducing the animals into a few wild areas slowly.
  

Ask for Information

Working in pairs you will be assigned two animals to research (one of which will also be researched by another pair) from the below list.  In addition, you must find one additional endangered animal, that is not on the list, to research and report upon.

Endangered Animal List

Once you have found a partner and have been assigned two animals to research use this worksheet (click on the highlighted word) to record the information you and your partner find.  On the worksheet you will be answering these questions:

• What is the animal's name?
• Where is the animal found (geographic range & habitat)?
• Why is the animal endangered?
• How many of the animals are left in the world?
• What are people doing to help save the animal?
• Why is it important to save the animal (ecosystem roles & positive impact on humans)?
• Is there any other important information you want to include?

• Are the animals from the same area or habitat?
• Are the animals endangered for the same reasons?
• Did any one area have more endangered animals?

Arrange the Answers

Now that you have shared your endangered animals with your group and have discussed your findings, your group will clump the data into categories and create a concept map.  Your group will create the concept map by either using the program Inspiration or by hand writing a concept map on a piece of paper (poster board size).  The categories that you use in your concept map are up to your group, but they should be based on the questions originally asked and the information your group collected.  Some sample categories might be, why endangered with subcategories of habitat destruction and hunting by humans, but that is only a start.  This concept map will be presented to the class, so you will want to do you best work and be creative!

Apply What You've Learned

Now that you've created a concept map with your group and listened to your classmates' presentations are you able to answer the questions originally asked in the introduction?  Why are animals endangered?  How are humans trying to save these animals?  How many of the endangered animals we studied are left in the world?  In addition, are you now able to see connections between endangered animals that you didn't notice  before?  In a short paper please write about the above questions and discuss any other information about endangered animals that you have learned and feel is important.   And, lastly, write about how you can help endangered animals.

Evaluation

You will be evaluated on your individual work (database search & paper), partner work (worksheet), and group work (concept map & presentation) using the following criteria for your overall grade:

1 = not acceptable       2 = could be better     3 = acceptable     4 = outstanding

Conclusion

During this activity you have learned information about endangered animals from all around the world.  You now know how important these animals are and the positive and negative effects humans have on these animals' survival.  If you would like to learn even more about endangered animals you can visit these websites:

• http://endangered.fws.gov
• http://www.redlist.org/
• http://www.kidsplanet.org/
  

Credits & References

Endangered animals image from: http://www.edutel.org/pbtil/wang/student_projects.html
Background image from: http://www.tvlm.freeserve.co.uk/safari.html

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this lesson, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this lesson. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

Last updated on June 19, 2003. Based on a template from EDTEC 570