Endangered Animals

Let’s Not Say Goodbye

A WebQuest for 5-6th Grade (Science, Language Arts & Art)

Mary Ernst

Mernst1953@yahoo.com

Introduction

You have finally received the letter you have been waiting for! You and your classmates have been selected by the National Wildlife Service to participate in their Junior Wildlife Ranger Program to earn a special Junior Wildlife Ranger badge. You will be expected to research an endangered animal. You will be able to use the Internet, books, and other resources to find out necessary information that is required by the National Wildlife Service. You will use this researched information to write a report and make a shoebox size diorama of your endangered animal. The reports and the dioramas will be on display at the National Wildlife Service Visitor Center. These reports and dioramas will help educate the public on the crisis of saving our endangered animals. Will you be able to help save endangered animals? Good luck and have fun on your quest to help save our endangered animals and on earning this special Junior Wildlife Ranger Badge.

The Task

You will make a report and a diorama of an endangered animal.

v You will choose an endangered animal from the Endangered Animal List

v You will use at least 3 sources to find required information.

v You will write and proofread a report about your endangered animal that includes the required information.

v You will illustrate and color a picture of your chosen animal in its habitat.

v You will create a diorama of your animal in its habitat using many art forms.

v You will make a presentation of your animal at the Junior Park Ranger badge ceremony.

The Process

To complete a report and diorama of your endangered animal you will:

1. Choose an animal from the current Endangered Animal list and write it on our classroom list next to your name. Remember that only every student has to choose a different endangered animal.

2. After you have chosen your endangered animal, you will use the internet (helpful links listed below), books, encyclopedias, and other resources to locate the information required by the National Wildlife Service. You must use at least 3 different resources. Your report must contain:

Name of the animal. (common and scientific names)

Give a description of the animal. (size, color, shape & any unusual traits and abilities)

Tell where the animal can be found. (countries, continents)

Which family does the animal belongs? (mammal, bird, fish, reptile etc.)

Birth – How is it born (live birth, egg, etc.),and is it a single or multiple birth

What is the animal’s life span?

What is the animal’s habitat like?

What does the animal eat?

Does the animal migrate? If so, where and when?

Who are the animal’s enemies?

What does it use for defense?

How many are known to exist?

What is causing it to be endangered?

What are solutions to help it survival?

3. Organize the information you have gathered. Make an outline to organize your material. Write the report in paragraph form and proofread it for grammar, punctuation, capitalization and spelling errors.

4. Type the report using Word or any other word processing program.

5. Illustrate and color a picture of your endangered animal in its own habitat. This picture will be placed on the top of your report.

6. Create a shoebox size diorama of your chosen animal in its habitat using many art forms. (examples: construction paper, clay, wood, toothpicks, tree branch pieces, silk flowers, dirt, sand, sandpaper etc.)

7. Be ready to make a presentation of your endangered animal at our badge ceremony. You will show your diorama and tell us at least 3 things you learned about your endangered animal.

Resources and helpful links to use on your research are:

http://www.thewildones.org/animal.html

http://endangered.fws.gov/wildlife.html

http://www.tenan.vuurwerk.nl/indexusa.htm

http://www1.nature.nps.gov/wv/es.htm

http://www.defenders.org/eslc.html

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/3626/index.html

http://www.sprint.com/epatrol/ep-endangered.html

http://www.amnh.org/Exhibition/Expedition/Endangered/species-exp-guide.html

http://www.worldkids.net/eac/facts.html

http://www.nwf.org/wildalive/index.html

http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/articlearchives/animals/index.htm

http://www.schoolworld.asn.au/species/species.html

http://www.nbs.gov/features/kidscorner/slide1.html

http://www.mindspring.com/~zoonet/gallery.html

World Book Encyclopedia

Grolier Endangered Animal Set

New Book of Knowledge

Use the card catalog in your school or local library

Evaluation

Each student will receive two grades. One grade for their endangered animal report, and one grade for their diorama.

Score

You will complete the Endangered Animal Report

Does the report but does not answer all questions, does not proofread and does a poor job on animal illustration.

Does the report, proofreads & illustrates, but without thought or detail.

Does the report and illustration with some thought and detail. Paragraph with complete sentences are present.

Does report and illustration by using much thought and detail. Good paragraph form and sentence structure.

You will complete the Endangered

Animal Diorama

Does the diorama, but it is messy, uses not much effort in creating the background, animal. Little effort

Does the diorama with satisfactory effort.

Does the diorama with satisfactory effort. It is neatly done & shows details and use of thought for background.

Does the diorama with exceptional effort. It is neatly done with lots of details that showed much thought.

Conclusion

Congratulations! After the presentation of your report and diorama at the ceremony, you will receive your badge and certificate. The reports and dioramas will be on display at the Wildlife Visitor’s Center. The Wildlife Service is very thankful of your participation and assistance in this valuable program to help in saving our endangered animals.

Credits & References

I would like to thank the USGA website for providing the slide of the wolf.

Last updated on February 24, 2000. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page