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Aloha, My fourth graders are beginning their research unit on Hawaii's endangered species. We will end by making public service announcements advocating various conservation efforts here on the islands. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to integrate appropriate research techniques, use of technology, and science content for this unit? I have some ideas, but any other resources and/or thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Mahalo, Paula

Hi Paula, We just finished up our unit on evolution, natural selection and adaptations. Instead of focusing on Darwin's finches, we looked at the Hawaiian Hummingbird. Their beaks are as diverse and specialized as the finches on Galapagos Islands. To begin the unit, we distributed a fork, spoon, or chop stick to each student. These utensils represented various types of beaks. Then, we set up various "islands" with M&Ms, a bowl of rice, Li Hing Mango, and peanuts. Each group of students rotated to each island. On an island, the students had 30 seconds to shovel, scoop, poke and stab as much food and place it in their personal cups (stomachs). Students recorded their total and then moved to the next island. Student completed discussion questions about which "beak" worked best at each island. They also thought about if after a few generations would any species possibly die out. Paula, you could also discuss how endemic plants in Hawaii have lost their thorns, poison and prickers because there were less predator here. It would be cool to do a food web with only endemic plants and animals. Hope this helps,

Hi Erin, Thanks so much for the ideas! I love the beak adaptation activity, and I definitely will try that. A few years ago my class did a Claymation food web activity with only endemic plants and animals. It was really time-consuming, but very rewarding. I show it to my new students every year during this unit. I appreciate your comments! Mahalo, Paula

Hey Paula
What a great idea for a cumulative activity to do a public service announcement! I may have to “borrow” that one for my environmental science unit. We use iMovie in our class to make commercials. Students could break into teams and come up with their own “commercial” to present their public service announcement.

The following link shows you some projects done by 4th graders at Enchanted Lakes Elementary in Kailua
Your text to link here...

http://www.hisurf.com/~enchanted/species.html

Aloha Paula, Loving the PSA community activity! I think it's a great idea. Like Dawn, our students create an iMovie project or a keynote (powerpoint) presentation. For our invertebrate science unit students learn how to research using a variety of sources and taking notes on "note cards" being small index cards... This allows students to not be overwhelmed with the vast amount of information located on the web due to the size of the index card. Also, due to the lack of space, students are pushed to focus on key information and facts. It works out well having 8 cards, which can be directly relayed to an 8-slide presentation! This unit can be done in groups or individually.

Paula, You could tie in current events with what has been happening with the Monk Seal. It has been a few months but I saw some were being killed. Students could also research the efforts to track them among the islands.