Endangered Species

A WebQuery for 4th Grade

Sarah Anderton
andertos@cwu.edu

Introduction

There are over 1300 endangered species. We don't want these species to go extinct. You can help them. We need to get information to people. We have to let people know about all these endangered species, what they look like, where they live, what they eat and teach them how to prevent their extinction.

Teach me and other people all about an endangered animal (Your choice of animal).

The BIG QUESTION:
HOW CAN PEOPLE HELP PREVENT THIS ANIMAL FROM GOING EXTINCT, OR WHAT IS ALREADY BIENG DONE TO HELP SAVE THIS ANIMAL???????

Task

You are going to create a poster about an endangered animal that we can handout to people around the school. This poster should teach people about the endangered animal of your choice. Some examples of what you might research about your endangered animal are: what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, why it's endangered, how many animals of this species are left in our world, how can or are people helping to prevent this animal from going extinct. I want you to have fun with this. Teach everyone what you learn through your research process by dispaying the info on your poster. Don't forget to show us pictures. We want to see what the animal looks like, not just read about it. Lastly, type up a reference page of citations from the websites used to find the information presented on your poster board. You must use at least two different websites to find information about your animal.

Don't forget:
BE CREATIVE! HAVE FUN!

The Process

This is a list of questions to help you with your research, and creation of your poster.

What is an endangered species?
What are some general causes for animals becoming endangered?
What endangered animal would you like to know more about?
What does the animal look like?
Does the animal have acess to food? What does it eat?
Where does the animal live?
What climate does the animal live in?
Is the animal's home a safe place to live?
How many animals (the animal species you chose) are left in our world?
Why is this animal endangered?
How is this animal being helped?
Is there something people can do to help prevent this animal from extinction?
Do you have at least 4 pictures on your poster board?
Are there at least 10 accurate facts about the endangered animal you chose presented on your posterboard?
Is your poster colorful?
Does the poster look neat and organized?
Did you type up a reference page that includes citations of all the webpages used to find the information presented on your poster?the task be broken down into a few smaller tasks?

Resources

Here is a list of websites to help you with your research process. These should help you find out interesting and informative facts about your endangered species. Please do not feel limited to using only these links. These are just here to help guide you. You may use other websites to find information for your poster. However, you must turn in a separate "typed" list of citations for the websites (at least two different websites) that you used to create your poster.

Endangered Species This site describes a few endangered species, their habitat and living habits and why they are endangered.

All About Endangered Species Almost everything you need to know about endangered species can be found at this site, everything from causes of endangered species, laws that protect them, the specific endangered species of each state, to organizations, and books on endangered species.

Fact Sheets On this website there is a link to fact sheets for over 50 different species around the world.

Help Endangered Species This article talks about the general causes of extintion and why so many animals are becoming extinct. It also talks about how people can and are helping endangered species. It lists some specific animals and what is being done to prevent their extinction.

Endangered Animal Links This is a page of links about animals that are endagered. Use this link here to help you find other websites to look at.

Evaluation

Please use this rubric below when creating your poster. This is the criteria that is required for your poster:

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Creativity/Organization	The poster is very colorful. There are backdrops or other ways to make poster very appealing to the eye. Looks organized and it's easy to find information.	The poster is colorful. The poster is appealing to the eye. Looks organized and information can be found.	The poster has little color.The poster looks disorganized. Information does not appear to be organized.	Poster is simply black and white. All content/information is everywhere. It's content is disorganized, and clumped together.
Content - Accuracy	At least 10 accurate facts are displayed on the poster.	9-7 accurate facts are displayed on the poster.	6-4 accurate facts are displayed on the poster.	Less than 4 accurate facts are displayed on the poster.
Graphics -Clarity	At least 4 visuals/pictures are displayed on poster. Graphics are all in focus and the content easily viewed and identified from 6 ft. away.	At least 3 visuals/pictures are displayed on poster. Most graphics are in focus and the content easily viewed and identified from 6 ft. away.	At least 2 visuals/pictures are displayed on poster. Most graphics are in focus and the content is easily viewed and identified from 4 ft. away.	There is 1 or no visuals/pictures displayed on poster. Many graphics are not clear or are too small.
Mechanics	Capitalization and punctuation are correct throughout the poster.	There is 1 error in capitalization or punctuation.	There are 2 errors in capitalization or punctuation.	There are more than 2 errors in capitalization or punctuation.
Grammar	There are no grammatical mistakes on the poster.	There is 1 grammatical mistake on the poster.	There are 2 grammatical mistakes on the poster.	There are more than 2 grammatical mistakes on the poster.
Time and Effort	The entire class time was used effectively. It is obvious that a lot of time was spent outside of class to finish poster.	Most of class time was used effectively. It looks like some time was spent outside of class to finish poster.	Class time was not entirely used. There was some talking, or other distractions. Little time was spent outside of class on this poster.	Little class time was used. Student was off task the majority of the time. No time was used outside of class.

Conclusion

You have just explored about a specific endangered animal in our world. Not only did you get to teach your peers about your animal, but you also got to learn from other students about other endangered animals. Now that you are aware of the endangered animals in our world, the causes of them being endangered, and how they are being helped or how you can help save them I'm hoping that you will take this information and extend and share your knowledge.