Did You Know....?

1. North America has the most animals that are on the endangered species list

2. Since 1600, more than 700 species of plants and animals have gone extinct.

3. The country with the most endangered species is Ecuador, with about 2,000 animals endangered. The United States comes in second place with about 1,000 animals.

4. Vietam and South Africa are both countries with the fewest endangered species. Both at around 250 animals.

5. Passed in 1973, The Endangered Species act protects animals at risk of extinction. It states that when a species is endangered, it is illegal to kill, harm, or take the species out of its habitat.

6. The reason the rainforest is so abundant with various medicinal plants is because it's massively biodiverse, and to compete, plants and animals have to evolve in bizarre new ways, often producing new and valuable techniques.

7. 38 million acres are lost per year in tropical rainforests. Up to one half of the world's species live in these areas.

8. There is 1 species that becomes extinct per 100 years - this is the natural rate of extinction

9. The Asian Crested Ibis is one of, if not the only one, the most endangered animals. It's population only ranges from 50 to about 250. And it only resides in one area in area of the world

10. Animals of the least concern are the Common Wood Pigeon, White-tailed Mongoose, House Mouse, and Wolverine

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_species

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-endangered-species

http://www.aneki.com/endangered_species.html

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/infographic-top-20-countries-with-most-endangered-species

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/endangered-species-facts.html

http://conservationfacts.com/endangered-wildlife.php

http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3801&m=0

Questions!

Essential Question:

How can we help with the conservation of endangered species?

Foundation Questions:

Who started the endangered species list?

How many animals are on the list?

How many organizations are out there ot help endangered species?

For each endangered species, how many is left of each species?

How does an animal get onto the endangered species list?

What do the organizations do to help endangered species?

Howlong does it take for animal to become endangered and/or extinct?

How would life be different without animals?

How does the loss of one species affect other species?

why should we help protect animals from becoming extinct?

Warm Up for May 10, 2010

Chines Proverb:

One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

Warm-Up

What does this mean?

I think that it means that when someone asks a question, they may only be criticized for five minutes. But when they don't ask at all, they remain foolish forever because they never know the answer to the question they may have asked.

History Lesson Time

Endangered species is the topic the topic that I have settled one. Seeing as though I have a strong interest in animal, domestic and not domesticated, I believe that this topic is a very good fit for me. Not to mention that I really want the falling numbers of different species to stop.

Now on with the history lesson:

Important People:
There are no individual people, but there are groups of people that strive to help protect wildlife. Group such as the World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Network, and plenty of others. Those groups contain individuals that passionately believe that endangered species list needs to be shortened, and the way to do that is conserving the world that we, and the animals live in.

Key Places:
There are specific places throughout the world that concern themselves with the animals in there area. suchc as the wolves and bears in the western part on the United States. Others are concerning themselves with the pandas in Asia. Wherever there are endangered species, and the place has a group that help those animals, it's a key place.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_species
http://www.worldwildlife.org/home.html
http://www.wildnet.org/?gclid=CN7axbWlwKECFQuB5QodJivjAw

The Other Article

3rd Article - Passion for Projects

Question on Article:

1. Chance to bring something hat you're very passionate about that you never brought up before or talked about before

2. Communication, Math & Science, Integrating experience and knowledge to form reasoned judgment to solve problems, and to understand the importance of work

3. technology because it's a natural component and it's a tool you should use on a daily basis

4. A student who suffers from dyslexia did his grad project on conductiong research on dyslexia and helped younger boys with it

-Another student told about how serial killers came about and where some of them are from

Questions for Everyone:

1. A cumulative project, long-term project, cross-disciplinary topic, students choice, it shows what the students had learned, sums up their school and extracurricular life

2. Know how to use technology, be passionate about topic, have good time mangement, know you strengths and weaknesses, research skills

Weldon Seniors Article

-What are some important parts of graduation project?

For an graduation project to be successful, good research, presentation, and a passion for the topic are very important.

-What are some reasons students choose the topics they do?

They feel very strongly about the topics they choose. Sometimes they also do it about something that they're really interested in, and may consider doing it after high school.

-What are some ways students can demonstrate the knowledge they've gained about their topics?

They can demonstrate it by the research they present and continuing their interest later in life.

-What are some tools students use to make their presentations more interesting?

Tools that a student can use are a mentor and other people that can help you and use all resources that you can get your hands on. Also, a strong interest or passion in the topic is important.

-What is a graduation project?

A project that is completed in you senior year that is needed to graduate and it demonstrates the person's knowledge on the topic.

-Based on the reading, notes, and discussion, describe the the attributes of a student that can successfully complete a graduation project.

I think the main thing that a student needs to successfully complete a graduation project is passion. If the person doesn't feel passionate about the topic, then the topic means nothing.

Begin Graduation Project --- Now

1) My brother had graduated from City High in 2008, so I was able to get a little idea of what I would have to do. From what I heard from it, it's a lot and a lot of work. Not to mention that if you weren't to do it, you pretty much failed; something that I do not want to do.

2) I have a strong interest in animals, so recently I had come up with the idea of doing my graduation project on endangered species. Such as what animals are endangered, what it takes for the animals to get onto the endangered species list.

I also have an interest in psychology, behavior analyst mostly (think Criminal Minds on television), but I am not sure how to do a graduation project on this topic.

3) My main concern for my graduation project is getting everything completed to an extent that it's done really, really well. Also, I am concerned about putting together some kind of action plan and actual presenting. I tend to get nervous speaking in front of people I am not familiar with.