Help! Someone Has Destroyed my Home!

Designed by: Katie Howard School: Brockman Elementary

Grade Level: Fourth     Subject(s): Science

Core Curriculum Objective(s):  Describe changes in the environment caused by humans. (II B 3-A)

Time Frame: 1-5 fifty minute sessions (dependent on time for presentations)

Overview: A mystery bag is used to help students discover ways in which humans endanger the life of animals by changing their habitat. Students will work with a partner to design a solution to the problem of habitat destruction. The partnership will develop a presentation for the class that will show what their solution to the problem of habitat destruction would be. Students will also visit various web sites and make a web to show what they learned about animals and their habitat.

Focus/Essential Question(s):How can you describe the changes in the environment caused by humans that may be destructive to animals and their habitats?

Resources/Materials: 
-a colorful mystery bag with the following items inside:
 -a small bottle of water to represent water pollution(label)
 - small bottle of air to represent air pollution 
-a toy car to represent building of roadways in natural habitat
 -a toy house to represent loss of habitat due to human home development 
-an animal puppet or toy animal to represent captured and sold animals 
-large chart paper or portable dry erase board to record predictions and to show the students a sample web of a computer web site

Computer with Averkey connection and the following sites saved in favorites:

www.frog.simplenet.com 

www.cccweb.com/wildlife.html 

www.remedia.com

Books and video are optional:
 -Audio Cassette by Peter Himmelman, Baby Music Boom called My Best Friend Is a Salamander
-Reptiles and Amphibians by Catherine Herbert Howell 
-Slippery Babies: Young Frogs, Toads and Salamanders by Ginny Johnson and Judy Cutchins

Culminating Assessment:

Scoring Rubric: 

25 points- Student clearly identified and described what change to the environment humans cause.

25 points- Student worked with a partner to describe a solution to one problem of human changes to the environment and developed a format to present the information to the class.

25 points- Student worked cooperatively and shared the work equally.

25 points- Student made a web that describes one of the three web sites and clearly communicated what was learned at the site.

 Instructional Activities:

Open the lesson with a mystery bag. Ask the students what they think is in the bag. If no one is close tell them it has something to do with science and missing homes. Let them feel the contents from the outside of the bag. Now have the students guess again and record their predictions.

Ask a student to pull one item at a time from the bag. Discuss with the students how is the item connected with the loss of homes and science. Guide the discussion towards humans change the environment in ways that may be destructive to animals and their natural habitat...their homes.

After all of the items have been pulled out of the mystery bag set them in front of the students and match them with the labels: 

WATER POLLUTION 

AIR POLLUTION 

HOME DEVELOPMENT 

ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Go to the computer and remind students how to look under favorites. Show them one of the three web sites saved for further reading about animals and their habitats. Inform them that at some point during the week each partnership should visit a web site saved for learning more about the subject and that they are responsible for developing a web to show what was at the site and what was learned there. Show the students how to make a web using the large chart paper or the dry erase board.

Dismiss students with their self-selected partner. Tell them that their assignment is to develop an action plan to stop the possible destruction of animals and their habitats by humans. They need to only select one of the four changes sited in the mystery bag to come up with a solution for the problem. Show the class the scoring rubric and tell them that they must work cooperatively and to come up with a format to present to the class what their idea is to help the animals and save their homes. They may choose to do a report, write a poem, or perform a skit.