International Endangered Species Day is Friday, May 17. Its importance is heightened with the recent news that one million plant and animal species are expected to be extinct within decades. The report was compiled by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This study doesn’t include microbes, which are essential to healthy ecosystems. Approximately one hundred species will be extinct by 2020. Since the study concludes these extinctions are due to human activity, we must teach our students conservation. It doesn’t matter if you are a science teacher or not.
The problem here is teaching about mass extinctions in real time is scary, especially for our youngest students. It doesn’t need to be, though. The Practical Science Teachers have scoured the web to find great sites for ideas, activities, and information about Endangered Species Day. Make time on Friday, May 17 to show some love to our threatened plants and animals!
http://www.instructorweb.com/lesson/endangeredspecies.asp
Instructor Web has a multi-day project on endangered species for grades 2-5. It comes with readings, research sites and is interdisciplinary.
https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson310.shtml
Education World is a great site! It has 5 activities for students in grades K-10. I couldn’t get the Tramline Endangered Species field trip to work. Let us know if you can!
http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/endangered-species-1/
ScienceNetlinks is a site by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A two-part lesson plan is provided
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/directory
This link will take you directly to a listing of endangered animal species. From there, students can click on a link that will provide a lot of information about the animal and how students can help. You can adopt an endangered animal – symbolically. Climate change is also listed on the site so students can trace the area and determine the causes of endangerment.
https://www.fws.gov/endangered/
An excellent site for middle and high school students, this site is maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Students can choose their state from a menu box and can view the endangered and threatened species in that state. From there, students can access more information about the species and download a PDF of the state plan to save the species.
http://www.animalplanet.com/wild-animals/endangered-species/
Animal Planet has a great site for learning about endangered animals. Students can choose from a wide variety of animals from around the globe and click on the picture. From there, they can access articles, videos, and statistics about the animal. Perfect for your upper elementary students to do research. Primary students will love the pictures.
The National Wildlife Federation site gives teachers or older students a short, concise definition of what constitutes endangered and why we should care. Scroll down and you will find out the criteria a species meets to become endangered and some success stories.
This is a great site for students to peruse and take action. There are lesson plans and activities for all grade levels. They have compiled a list of ten critically endangered animals with photos and information. Students can participate in a Missing Species Project, teachers can exchange their experiences with the project with teachers around the world. A free book download and activities for Endangered Species Day, including events you can attend.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/teaching-resources/toolkits
The World Wildlife Organization offers free lesson plans and teacher guides for six endangered animals as well as other environmental issues. Definitely worth a visit!
http://idahoptv.org/sciencetrek/topics/endangered_species/teachers.cfm
Idaho Public TV has a treasure trove of activities, lesson plans, and a downloadable coloring book for younger students. There is a link to Arkive.org with some activities for your whiteboard as well as tons of links for teachers of all grade levels.
https://www.ifaw.org/people-and-ideas
A wonderful site for older students (Grades 6-12), the International Fund for Animal Welfare works by enlisting local people to help endangered animals, creating awareness of how interconnected we are with the planet. IFAW develops creative solutions to environmental problems but is committed to animal welfare. Click on the projects tab to find where IFAW is working around the world. The People and Ideas tab introduces students to the people of IFAW and offers newsy articles on projects.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/04/endangered-threatened-species-how-we-decide/
National Geographic explains in-depth how the world decides if a species is endangered. The site uses endangered animals as examples. Links to sites providing information on specific animals are included at the bottom of the page.
https://www.livescience.com/topics/endangered-species
Live Science provides lots of great articles on the state of some endangered species. Many are comeback stories, but there are more sad stories. Pop-up videos provide more news stories. This site is good for middle and high school students to track the successes or failures of our majestic species.
https://www.dkfindout.com/us/more-find-out/special-events/endangered-animals/
I have been a fan of DK books for a while and this site, while one page for our topic, is a good resource for younger students. A short introduction is accompanied by beautiful photos of endangered animals. When students click on an animal, a pop-up provides information.
Kids Discover provides an excellent overview of endangered species for grades 3-5. The site includes a slideshow of 21 endangered species that includes a description for each. Students can also take a short quiz to gauge how much they learned from the site.
https://www.ducksters.com/animals/endangered_animals.php
Ducksters is another site I’ve come to really like. This page provides more information on categories of endangered animals and lists some animals students can research. The site also explains how species are protected.
https://kids.kiddle.co/Endangered_species
Kiddle is a nice encyclopedia site for the younger set. A short explanation of endangered species is followed by a list of six animals. Each has a link for students to learn more.
With so few sites dedicated to endangered plant species, this one is included due to its listing of strange plants. Although it only provides reasons a few plants are threatened, it is valuable in spurring older students to dig deeper into why these plants are endangered.
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=220
Scholastic News list several articles published by the magazine on endangered animals. Worth a look!
https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr133.shtml
Teachers will find background information, sites for students links, ideas for projects, and a lot of other useful information.
http://www.endangered.org/cms/assets/uploads/2013/07/ES-Day-Lesson-Plan.docx
Click this link and it will take you to a PDF lesson plan with adaptations for all grades.