Animals and their Environment

Grant

Abstact, Description, Rationale, Potential Impact, Evaluation, Calendar, Budget

Abstract

Proposal Summary: (Budget $2337.58)
    In the past 20 years, 4 species that call the Austin area home have been added to the threatened list: the Golden-cheeked Warbler, the Black-capped Viero, the Texas Blind Salamander, and the Barton Creek Salamander. Many agencies have speculated as to the reasons of theses animals’ declining numbers. However, the only attempt to compile the data and present it to the community in a worthwhile manner has been performed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department with little emphasis and information on these animals in Austin. This information could help identify the larger trends of extinction and degradation of the environment here in Central Texas.
    High school biology students will gather information about 4 endangered species native to Austin and compile this information in hopes of defining each species’ role in Dr. J. Floor Anthoni’s system of conservation. They will work with local environmental agencies like the Save Our Springs Alliance to collect information about these and other threatened organisms. After information has been gathered, students will attempt to determine whether an overall trend of decline is present among the animals of Central Texas. A poster session open to the public will be conducted at the end of the project. In addition, a website with the students’ presentations will be available for access online.

Description:

    The project will begin by the teacher engaging the student with interesting models and simulations of the interactions of animals and their environments. For example, several fascinating and easily understood online java applets can be found that replicate the randomness in an animal’s environment so students can have a better grasp over just what drives an animal to do what it does. Also in the very first day of the project, the students will begin a lesson that was created to further emphasize the breadth of the project. Finally, the first day ends with an introduction to the final project in which the students will pick 1 of 4 endangered animals to research and come up with ways to attempt to rescue from the threatened list.
    Within the first week, the students will have a good understanding of the problems facing their endangered species. They will spend a day in the school library creating a research paper with background information on their animal, and to nurture their comfort with technology, they will find articles and website online that help them better comprehend the complexities of helping their endangered species. They will engage in another lesson to support the aims of the project and will finish the week by beginning to formally question why their species is endangered. This will be done by presenting a proposal to the teacher outlining the difficulties the species faces and the relative importance of these difficulties. The proposal will be due at the end of week 2.
    The second week serves to further engage the students in the world of their endangered species. The week begins by finishing a lesson that reinforces the content of the project. The next day the students will embark on a field trip to one of 4 professional agencies that is committed in some part to saving the endangered species they have chosen to research. A vital lecture on the process of the scientific method and its significance will be given, followed by a field trip to the habitat of their endangered animals. The week ends, as mentioned above, by the students’ completion of the proposal and by the students beginning to come up with ideas for an individual environmental factor they can measure that might be responsible for their specie’s decline.
    The method of science will be emphasized strongly during the third week of the project. The first day of the week the students will receive written feedback on their proposals from the teachers and feedback from the rest of the students in the form of a group discussion. The next day they will go on their final field trip of the project. They will return to their species’ habitat and will conduct measurements of the factor that they previously determined was potentially responsible for their species’ demise. The rest of the week will be spent conferring with their groups and analyzing their data in an attempt to discover the actual significance of the factor they measured.
    The fourth and final week of the project will help to bring the information the students gathered together in a congealed and organized fashion as well as allow the students an avenue to share their information with the community. The students will begin the week by preparing a presentation of their data. This presentation will be given at a local middle school in the following days. Finally, the unit ends with the students working in their groups to develop a website to organize and publicize the information regarding the endangered species they chose.

Grant Rationale

    Central Texans have always prided themselves on living on some of the beautiful and lush land in all of Texas. This region, sometimes referred to as the Hill Country because of its rolling hills, includes such diverse geologic phenomena as the Edwards Aquifer, with it’s system of winding underground streams and caves, and the ancient Llano Uplift, made from granite inclusions that are over a billion years old. However, every decade, new species from this area are added to the threatened and even endangered animals lists. In the past 20 years, 4 species that call the Austin area home have been added to the threatened list: the Golden-cheeked Warbler, the Black-capped Viero, the Texas Blind Salamander, and the Barton Creek Salamander. Although many agencies have speculated as to the reasons of theses animals’ declining numbers, the only attempt to compile the data and present it to the community in a worthwhile manner has been performed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and they have done so with little emphasis on Central Texas and with little information on the animals that call Austin home.
    In 2001, Dr. J. Floor Anthoni came up with a way to help save particular species from extinction in his article “Principles of Conservation.” He stressed the importance of collecting large amounts of information on the species of interest and educating the community of their potential fate. He also recognized that each threatened species has a different role in the overall push for conservation. These roles are defined by their significance in motivating the people to action and by how well they represent the overall decline of a community. Because of the amount of time and resources required to research these threatened organisms and put the decline of particular organisms’ in context with the decline of other organisms, the roles of the 4 previously mentioned Austin-area species is unknown. This information, however, could help identify the larger trends of extinction and degradation of the environment here in Central Texas.
    High school biology students will gather information about 4 species native to Austin, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, the Black-capped Viero, the Texas Blind Salamander, and the Barton Creek Salamander, and compile this information in hopes of defining each species’ role in Dr. J. Floor Anthoni’s system of conservation. They will work with local environmental agencies like the Save Our Springs Alliance to collect information about these and other threatened organisms. After information has been gathered, students will attempt to determine whether an overall trend of decline is present among the animals of Central Texas. Students will present what they find to local elementary and middle schools and will post their data online.

Potential Impact

In this project, we aim to raise awareness about the threatened species in the Central Texas area. There have been speculations on the reason for their declining numbers, but there is little compiled data focusing on Central Texas. With this project, students can compile data and gain awareness about their surroundings and the creatures living in it.
    Another intent to this project to increase student interest in scientific inquiry and allow students to apply scientific concepts to their findings. Students will be presented with the problem of the declining populations of 4 species in the Austin area and 4 teachers will help build knowledge of evolution and ecosystems. Students will then form groups and decide which species to investigate. In addition to working with local environmental agencies, students will collect information in the field. By analyzing this information, students will attempt to determine the source for the declining numbers. Their findings can then be presented to their peers in class and to the community, increasing awareness in the community. Their conclusions will also be posted online to increase access to their information.

Evaluation

The mechanism for measuring the project’s success will be research poster session.  This poster session will be open to public so students will have a chance to present their findings to their classmates and experts.  Students in each group will present the data and observation on the poster they collected.  They will make prediction on overall trend of decline is present among the endangered animals of Central Texas.  Furthermore, they should conclude whether they ways to conserve these species based on their scientific data and conclusion is valid or not.  This project focus on the scientific research process and the poster session will be a great opportunity to evaluate students’ progress.  Students will be also graded based on their participation during the course of this project.  To effectively measure the progress of each group, I will have a grading rubric and closely observe each member of the group.  In addition, there will be another rubric for each group during poster session to evaluate the overall presentation.  These rubrics will be the primary records and information for the teachers to keep and allow us to measure our progress.
    According to the biology TEKS, this upcoming final project meets the general requirements.  For instance, “students conduct field and laboratory investigations, use scientific methods during investigations, and make informed decisions using critical-thinking and scientific problem-solving.  In addition, investigations students conducted are used to learn about the natural world. Students should understand that some types of questions can be answered by investigations, and that methods, models, and conclusions built from these investigations change as new observations are made. Models of objects and events are tools for understanding the natural world and can show how systems work.

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Budget