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Endangered
Species, Cultures, and Biomes
Activity
2: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Grade
Level: 7 - 9 grade
Time:
90 - 120 minutes of research and writing time
Concept:
Students choose a species common today and predict into the future
possible scenarios if the species became extinct.
Objectives:
Students will:
1. establish cause and
effect situations (Science)
2. determine the
importance of individual species in complex cycles (Science)
3. predict a future
100 years later without a current common animal or plant species (Science)
4. write a story of
the future (Language Arts)
National
Standards
Science
Language Arts
Materials:
research materials
Preparation
Needed:
none
Procedure:
1. Have each student
choose a plant or animal species that is common in the area.
2. Research the animal
to determine its role in various cycles and its current range.
3. Tell students that
it is 100 years later and that each of their species has become extinct.
Instruct students to predict possible results of that extinction.
4. Write these
predictions in the form of a story of that future.
Evaluation:
Students have at least three results of their species extinction
explained in their story.
Extensions:
1. Illustrate the
story.
2. What are some
currently threatened species in the local area?
What do local experts predict for the species in the future?
What are possible results of that prediction?
Modifications:
Older
students
1. Combine two or more
of the individual extinctions into one scenario.
What are the predicted possible results.
How does increasing the number of extinct species affect the impact
of possible results?
Younger
students
1. Do the activity in
small teams or as a class. Use
a very common animal such as a grasshopper where students are very
familiar with at least the food chain for the species.
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