As members of a group, you will view webpages and other material that explore this issue. The sites you will view are real webpages which might have some challenging words, so be prepared to use a dictionary and discuss what each page means in your group. To accomplish the task you will follow these steps:
- STEP 1: Background – all groups
- To get some information about this issue, we must first understand a little about endangered species. View the following pages to find out some basic information:
- The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (http://www.fws.gov) database will provide you with basic information about your species.
- The University of Michigan's Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web (http://www.oit.itd.umich.edu/bio) highly readable data organized into such categories as geographic range, food habits, reproduction, behaviour,etc.
- Animal Pictures Archive (http://www.best5.net/animal.) allows you to view a species in as many as ten different frames in thumbnail images, which can be magnified to full screen size.
- The National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition (http://www.nesarc.org/stlsts.htm) provides the most current list (June 24,1999) of the 1195 species that are endangered or threatened in the U.S. state by state.
- Blue Mountain Arts (http://www1.bluemountain.com/eng/species/index.html) offers animal lovers a broad selection of musical cards to personalize and send to those who have the same fondness about animals.
- The Busch Gardens Sea World (http://www.buschgardens.org) is loaded with information on both endangered sea life as well as terrestrials. You can even access their files on animal careers and how animals learn.
- STEP 2: Exploring the issue
For this part of your work, each group should choose an animal and write an Identity Card and make a poster on it.
In class, each group will present the information gathered, explaining why the animal is in danger of extinction.
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