Week+2+-+Habitats

Week 2: Habitats

**Day 1:** **What is a habitat?** **What do animals need in there habitat that is natural?** **What is provided by humans?** Students worked to find animals with certain characteristics. These characteristics make their habitats unique. Here are some questions we want answered:

1.) How do we know what the animals need based on their characteristics? 2.) How does the Zoo help the animals feel at home? 3.) Why are there certain items that appear to be "trash" in the animals habitats?

We are going to investigate these all week! Tomorrow we speak with the Gorilla Keepers to find out the answer to some of these questions!

** Day 2: ** ** Enrichment of Animals in a Controlled Habitat ** Zoo in the morning. Working hard on our first project! An Array (kind of)...pictures to be posted! Also, we got to visit with the Henry Doorly Zoo's Gorilla Keepers! They answered a lot of questions about Gorilla Enrichment and Habitats. The head keeper, told us all about how the Gorilla's are trained to do certain movements to have the Vets check them out for health purposes and about the Gorilla's families.


 * Were our QUESTIONS from yesterday answered?** Watch the VIDEOS and find out!

1.) How do we know what the animals need based on their characteristics? 2.) How does the Zoo help the animals feel at home? 3.) Why are there certain items that appear to be "trash" in the animals habitats?

Enrichment of Gorillas media type="youtube" key="QW20-yECtes" width="420" height="315" align="center"

media type="youtube" key="MUAQAlQvHo0" width="420" height="315" media type="youtube" key="bSeuJbf4F9U" width="420" height="315" Lauritzen in the afternoon - investigating another type of controlled habitat. ** Day 3: Wildlife Safari Habitat ** Today we visited an AMAZING extension of the Zoo - Ashland Nebraska's Wildlife Safari Park! It was amazing to see a different kind of controlled habitat. This place offered us the chance to see a variety of Animals such as:


 * Elk
 * Whitetailed Deer
 * Sandhill Cranes
 * Bald Eagles
 * African Pigmy Goats
 * Black Bears
 * Wolves
 * & BISON!!!

The experience was amazing! The animals were very visible because they were all trying to cool themselves in the shadiest parts of their habitat, where as last year, they were more difficult to find because it was a rainy day.

Students did an amazing job of questioning and also of observing. They learned a lot and even wrote from the point of view of their favorite animal when they returned to the Zoo! Look for some of their writing to be posted soon!





**Day 4: Nutrition & Habitats** Students and adults often wonder..."Why don't the animals just eat their habitat?". There is a very good reason - Nutritionist & Keepers! These very knowledgeable people help the animals stay healthy year round and the information they provided us was AMAZING! Click on the link below to see the powerpoint presentation that was shared with us! @https://docs.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/file/d/0B6NAXaQ88EjZLUo3UEl1cWdRY1U/edit?usp=sharing

The Afternoon brought us in touch with which animals are ENDANGERED due to the destruction of their HABITAT. Next week we use this information to start thinking about the adaptations animals need to survive. Also, in the 4th week we will begin to research about these animals and why we need to ADVOCATE for them!

** Day 5: TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH! **  ** How can we show what we learned using technology? **  ** How can we showcollection? **

** How do Dinosaurs compare to today's animals? **     Students visited the Dinosaur Valley in the afternoon and learned a little about those creatures compared to today's species of Reptiles. Also they worked on typing up their notes and ideas from previous trips to share with parents at the Showcase on June 28th! Technology plays a large role in our lives and their skills can always be improved. Next week, they will dive deeper into research!