Wildlife Protection Park

http://put.the.URL.here.html

by

Jeff Pacis

Introduction | Task | Resources | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion

Introduction

Due to the destruction of several of the Earth's ecosystems, much of the worlds wildlife has slowly but steadily been decreasing. Should trends continue certain ecosystems will cease to exist. Along with that, will be the demise of the wildlife that are dependent upon these ecosystems for their own survival. As a junior ecologist, your task is to develop your own enclosures that will allow animals in a specific ecosystem to avoid extinction. In groups, you will be required to choose and evaluate the ecosystem of your choice.

The Task

Form a group of up to four students. You may want to choose people you are more comfortable working with, since the project will require you to do work outside of the class. You will have a minimum of about 3 weeks to work on this. The first week, we will travel as a class to the library to research different ecosystems and its accompanying wildlife. You may choose any ecosystem in the world. It is important that you have chosen an ecosytem by the end of the week since it is the major research project of the semester. The following week, you will be working on discovering the types of animal species present in your ecosystem and designing your enclosures. The final week, you will be wrapping up your projects and preparing your presentations. The size of your ending project will be based upon your group size.

The final part of your project will be to give a five minute presentation to the class. Pretend you will be selling your ecosystem to a large corporation interested in saving our planet. There are no limitations on the amount of money and space you will be allowed to use. They will be looking for ecosystems along the lines of such famed exhibts as:

Gorrila Tropics
Polar Bear Plunge
Giant Panda Research Station
Hippo Beach
Sun Bear Forest

Resources

You are allowed to use any books, magazines, newspapers, internet sites, or any other types of resources available to you.

Some Useful Websites:

Sustainable Ecosystems Institute

The Process

You must first (1st) choose an ecosystem that your group will focus upon. You can do this by either picking a place in the world you are interested in or picking a specific animal that you can build around. Each group will have a different ecosystem. Second (2nd), you must determine the animals that live in your ecosystem. You will write about each of these animals in your paper. Some animals will have more information than others. Third (3rd), you will write your report. It must include what the enclosure will be like, how you selected your ecosystem, the weather, geographic location, and a food web. Fourth (4th), each group will be required to construct their enclosure, which will be used as a visual aid in their presentation. Fifth (5th), a list with a minimum of at least 4 resources must be submitted with your projects. Finally (6th), each group will give an oral presentation of their project.

Summary of what to do:

1) Choose Ecosystem

2) Identify animal species in Ecosystem

3) Written Report

4) Constructed Enclosure

5) List of References

6) Oral Presentation

Evaluation

The following Rubric will be used to evaluate each student and their groups effort on this project.

Category

Exemplary

4

Accomplished

3

Developing

2

Beginning

1

Score

Written Representation of the organisms and ecosystem.

Completely describes all items listed in directions. Has quite a few organism with good descriptions.Lacks diversity of organisms. All areas described in directions. Has several descriptions of the animals. Lightly describes some of the areas in descriptions. Has descriptions which most students might not understand. Or very little information. 50 % of the overall grade
4=50pts

3=40pts

2=35pts

1=25pts

Classroom presentation

Very engaging. All members seem involved.Offers interesting trivia facts. Interesting to most of the class. Mostly organized and talks well to the class. Moves through the presentation somewhat well. Some stumbling in organization. Reading the report directly from their paper. Roughly organized. 15 % of the overall grade
4=15pts

3=12pts

2=10pts

1=7pts

Wise use of class time

Very productive. Always on task. Very involved. Mostly on task. Seems to be busy. Somewhat on task. Might be quitting early. Socializing. Sometimes working, but not that involved. 15 % of the overall grade
4=15pts

3=12pts

2=10pts

1=7pts

Visual aid

A true work of art. Contains all the animals and shows a great layout. Good effort. Clearly supports the ecosystem. Lacks completeness but shows some major effort. Saved for the future as a non-example. 10 % of the overall grade
4=10pts

3=8pts

2=5pts

1=4pts

Resources

Should be listed by areas supported.
All resources clearly given credit. Includes books or CD's, and Internet sources. Resources listed. Hard to tell what they are. Can tell what they go with. Resources listed but not well identified with which sections they go with. Very few resources listed or matched with sections. 10 % of the overall grade
4=10pts

3=8pts

2=5pts

1=4pts

Category	Exemplary 4	Accomplished 3	Developing 2	Beginning 1	Score
Written Representation of the organisms and ecosystem.	Completely describes all items listed in directions.	Has quite a few organism with good descriptions.Lacks diversity of organisms. All areas described in directions.	Has several descriptions of the animals. Lightly describes some of the areas in descriptions.	Has descriptions which most students might not understand. Or very little information.	50 % of the overall grade 4=50pts 3=40pts 2=35pts 1=25pts
Classroom presentation	Very engaging. All members seem involved.Offers interesting trivia facts.	Interesting to most of the class. Mostly organized and talks well to the class.	Moves through the presentation somewhat well. Some stumbling in organization.	Reading the report directly from their paper. Roughly organized.	15 % of the overall grade 4=15pts 3=12pts 2=10pts 1=7pts
Wise use of class time	Very productive. Always on task. Very involved.	Mostly on task. Seems to be busy.	Somewhat on task. Might be quitting early. Socializing.	Sometimes working, but not that involved.	15 % of the overall grade 4=15pts 3=12pts 2=10pts 1=7pts
Visual aid	A true work of art. Contains all the animals and shows a great layout.	Good effort. Clearly supports the ecosystem.	Lacks completeness but shows some major effort.	Saved for the future as a non-example.	10 % of the overall grade 4=10pts 3=8pts 2=5pts 1=4pts
Resources Should be listed by areas supported.	All resources clearly given credit. Includes books or CD's, and Internet sources.	Resources listed. Hard to tell what they are. Can tell what they go with.	Resources listed but not well identified with which sections they go with.	Very few resources listed or matched with sections.	10 % of the overall grade 4=10pts 3=8pts 2=5pts 1=4pts

Conclusion

At the end of this project, you will have gained knowledge as to the various ecosystems present in the world, the types of endangered species present in those ecosystems, creating and replicating an ecosystem, and how to use various types of resources like the library and the internet to do research.

This page written by Jeff Pacis Last updated November 30, 1998.