The unit entitled "Endangered Animals" will explore seven habitats: grasslands, wetlands, mountains, rain forests, oceans, deserts and tundra. How to identify and classify animals into six different species will be learned. The main characteristics of mammals, birds, fish, insects, amphibians and snakes will be covered. The causes of animals becoming endangered will be covered as well as finding out what can be done to prevent animals from endangerment and/or extinction.
In this lesson we will look at the information we have entered into each team's database. Each team member will decide what information to put into the spreadsheet portion of the worksheet which is labeled Endangered Species Worksheet on the computer. Will the spreadsheet totals for each team look the same? Or will they look different for each team? Let's find out.
Discuss with the students the meaning of a spreadsheet. Give them the basic labels of a spreadsheet. Show them what the interactive spreadsheet worksheet looks like. The students will use the information they have gathered in their databases to fill in the spreadsheet. The databases will be sorted by animals and printed, then by habitats and printed. This will help the students who are not at a computer. The students will each recieve a hard copy of the spreadsheet to use as a guideline to fill in the computer's interactive worksheet. Once they have entered their data into the computer and finished the worksheet, they will print a copy for the Bio-Leader(teacher) to assess.
In large group time, the Bio-Leader will ask for the worksheets from the Bio-Team Members. Ask the students if they had any problems with the spreadsheet and how they solved them. Ask if anybody had to leave some cells empty. Ask the students why that might occur. Ask who had the highest mammal count and reptile count. The next activity will utilize a different type of graph. It will be done by the whole class. The activity will use the totals from their worksheets. So if they were not finished, they would need to be by the next activity.
From worksheets determine which children are having problems and help them on a one-to-one basis before the next graphing activity.