How Can We Protect Animals When Their Habitat Changes?
How Can We Protect Animals When Their Habitat Changes?
This module is currently being field tested and is not available for purchase.
How Can We Protect Animals When Their Habitat Changes? is part of Smithsonian Science for the Classroom, a curriculum series by the Smithsonian Science Education Center. It is designed to address a bundle of grade 3 engineering and life science standards. In this module, students:
- Compare fossils to modern organisms to explain that some animals that once lived are no longer found on Earth
- Identify the problem of modern animals being in danger of disappearing from Earth
- Analyze data to explain what happens to some animals when their habitat is built on
- Design a salamander tunnel that will solve the problem of salamanders dying trying to get to their vernal (breeding) pool
The Burgess Shale Formation
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/paleobiology/collections-overview/burgess-shale
This blog post describes the discovery of fossilized dinosaur footprints in Scotland.
Dinosaur Footprints
https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/scotlands-jurassic-island-what-scientists-can-learn-footprints
This blog post describes the discovery of fossilized dinosaur footprints in Scotland.
The Age of Humans: Evolutionary Perspectives on the Anthropocene
https://humanorigins.si.edu/research/age-humans-evolutionary-perspectives-anthropocene
This website has more information on the Anthropocene epoch.
Family Letter
Before starting How Can We Protect Animals When Their Habitat Changes?, share the Family Letter with students’ caregivers. Indicate how they should submit responses to the letter.
Arthropods
This file shows how trilobites and roly-polies are related.
Object
This file shows an image of a replica fossil of a trilobite.
Place
This file shows an image of the Anti-Atlas Mountains in Morocco, where many trilobite fossils are found.
Dating Fossils
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-do-scientists-date-fossils-180972391/
This website explains techniques used by Smithsonian scientists to date fossils.
Smithsonian Scientist Email
This file is a letter from a Smithsonian scientist with information about the replica fossil. Add your name and your class name to the email.
Trilobite Illustration
This file shows an image from a Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History exhibit. It is an artist’s illustration of what the ocean might have looked like when the trilobite was alive.
eMammal
eMammal is a Smithsonian-run website that allows groups to share and identify camera trap images.
The Science of Camera Traps
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/science-camera-traps
Alexandra Swanson, PhD, University of Oxford, and Roland Kays, PhD, North Carolina State University, discuss the use of camera traps in ecological research.
Virginia Woodland
This file shows an image of a woodland habitat in Northern Virginia.
Woodland Animals
This file shows 30 images taken by camera traps in Northern Virginia.
Grumeti
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/meredithspalmer/snapshot-grumeti/classify
This website is where citizen scientists can help scientists identify animals in Singita Grumeti Game Reserve, Tanzania.
Rescuing Species
https://www.biointeractive.org/professional-learning/science-talks/rescuing-species
Elizabeth Hadly, PhD, Stanford University, discusses the effect of habitat loss on genetic diversity of tigers.
Tiger Men
https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/tiger-men
This blog post discusses the history of tigers in India and the people who have helped protect them.
Tiger Simulation
https://ssec.si.edu/sites/default/files/games/TigerSimulation/build-04/
The Tiger simulation is available as a website for computers. Use the application on tablets or mobile devices (not available for field testing). We recommend playing the simulation in either Mozilla Firefox or Safari.
This simulation allows students to observe the effect of land development (farms) on tiger populations.
Please note that the field testing simulation does not include roads.
Designing a Zoo Exhibit
https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/how-design-zoo-exhibit-four-steps
This blog post describes the process for designing a zoo exhibit.
Conservation Comics
https://earthoptimism.si.edu/resources/comic/
This website includes sample comics and a comic strip template developed by the Smithsonian.
3-D Corridors
This file contains 3-D images of an underpass and an overpass. Use the controls to look at the underpass and overpass from all angles.
The 3-D images are not available for field testing.
Kit Tips & Tricks