Connections Program #5: Understanding the Animals

In this program we look at animals in relation to humans. The first segment is set at the
National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland where veterinarians help sick or injured
animals from the sea, like the seal and the turtle featured in this video, get better and
return to the wild. The second segment is about a woman in the Bahamas who swims
with sharks. The third segment is in Mexico, where tourism and butterflies come into
conflict. The last segment is about salamanders and one scientist who thinks they are the
best indication of the health of a forest.
Pre-teaching

Write the title on the board and ask the students to write down what they think the
program will be about.
After viewing all four segments, write a summary of the program and compare it
to your prediction.
Ask the students what they know about the animals in their country. Are there
any endangered animals in your country? What is being done to help them?
What can students do?

Group Activity:
(Possibly a group activity students discuss in small groups and then report back to
whole class)
What problems do animals face? Are they similar to problems humans face?
What if you woke up one morning and you could talk to animals? What would
you do?

Segment one: MARINE ANIMAL RESCUE STORY

First viewing
Pre-viewing questions: Class discussion

What is the difference between animal and human hospitals?

Why should we help animals?
Have you ever helped an animal in distress?

First viewing: (read questions FIRST)

1. How long does Dudley wait before he picks up an animal off the beach? (24
hours)
2. Who picks up the animal? (Volunteers)

3. Why do they rescue individual animals? (so they can study them and learn more
about ALL the animals)
4. How do seals get fresh water? (they eat ice)
5. what do the scientists do to the turtle? Why? (they pump its stomach to see what
it has eaten)
6. What is the survival rate for the animals brought into the hospital? (25%)
7. Whats the best way to give animals medicine? (put it in their food)
8. What happened to the harp seal? (it died)
9. What happened to the gray seal? (it survived and was released)
10. Why does the gray seal have a satellite transmitter on its back? (so the scientists
will know where it goes and have more information on seals)
Exercises (repeat viewings)
Re-write the sentences using simpler vocabulary
1. Injured Marine animals are brought in and nursed back to health. (sick animals
get better.)
2. Volunteers are its only hope for survival. (only the volunteers can help it.)
3. Id like to see him a little more feisty than he is right now. (He should be
moving more.)
4. They try to restore the animals health. (they help the animal get well.)
5. They are so severely debilitated that there is little hope for survival. (they are
very sick and might die.)
Class activities (extension)
1. Have a speaker from a zoo or animal hospital come and talk to the class.
2. Visit a zoo or animal hospital and interview the doctors or zookeepers.
Debate:
1. Some people think that killing animals so that you can wear animal fur is wrong.
Some think it is ok. What do you think?
2. Sometimes doctors use animals to test medicine. Is this ok? Sometimes, makeup
companies (companies that make lipstick, mascara, etc.) test their products on
animals. Is this ok?
3. Some people like to watch animals such as dogs or roosters fight to the death for
sport. Is this ok?
Discussion:
1. What responsibilities do people have for animals?
2. Why does it matter if animals go extinct?

Segment 2: PETTING SHARKS

Pre-teaching:
Discuss:
1. Talk about dangerous animals. Why are they considered dangerous? Because
they can eat humans? The mosquito, which spreads disease (like malaria), is the
most deadly animal on Earth. Are you scared of mosquitoes? Why are some
people scared of sharks or lions?
2. What jobs with dangerous animals can you think of? (zookeeper, lion tamer at the
circus) Would you want to work with dangerous animals? Why or why not?
First viewing: (read questions before viewing)
Students read sentences and then listen to tape and write down whether the following
sentences are true or false.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Christina has been diving in the Bahamas for 15 years. (false)

Christina feeds the sharks frozen fish. (true)
The sharks attack the divers. (false)
Christina enjoys her work. (true)
Christina will quit next year. (false)

Listening comprehension: (repeat viewings)

1. What are the three theories about why the sharks let Christina pet them? (1. There
is electricity between the sharks and the chain mail suit she wears. 2. Sharks
know and trust Christina because she feeds them. 3. Sharks like to be rubbed and
petted.)
2. Why does Christina dive and feed the sharks? (She enjoys it.)
Extension: Role Play
One student is Christina. Other students ask questions and the student playing Christina
tries to answer the questions as Christina would.

Segment 3: MEXICAN BUTTERFLIES

Pre-teaching: Discussion
1. Are there any wildlife sanctuaries in your country? What animals are protected
there? Why?

2. Are there any endangered animals in your country? What is done to protect
them?
3. What should happen if there is a conflict between the survival of animals and
economics?
First viewing: questions for comprehension check:
1.

What is a wildlife sanctuary? What problems (economic, political, physical) can

a sanctuary have?
2. Where do monarch butterflies go in the winter? In the summer?
3. How can tourism help endangered animals?
Repeat viewings: Questions
1. What percentage of North American butterflies are in this sanctuary? (30%)
2. Why do butterflies migrate to the U.S.A? (to lay their eggs on the milkweed
plant)
3. Why do the butterflies return to Mexico? (its warm)
4. Why is tourism killing the butterflies? (people stir up dust, which gets in the
butterflies lungs and kills them)
5. What else is killing the butterflies? (illegal logging and human incursions)
6. What plant do the monarch butterflies lay their eggs in? (the milkweed plant)
7. Would monarchs go extinct without the sanctuary? (No, but they would not
migrate)
Extension: Group work
1. In groups, choose one endangered animal and report to the class on it. Include its
habitat, how many are left, and why it is going extinct.
2. Come up with a solution to the butterfly problem in Mexico that balances
economics (tourism) with the environment.
3. Site for more information about monarch butterflies (sound files):
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4476170
ROLE PLAY:
In groups of three consider the following scenario:
In your town the local authorities have decided to build a hotel for tourists. This will
bring in much needed money to boost the local economy, it will make more local jobs
etc. However, the plans for the hotel are huge and will have a great impact on the natural
habitat of an endangered animal which is native to your country.
One student plays the hotel builder, one plays a conservationist concerned with the effect
the hotel will have on the habitat of the animal and one student plays a reporter for a
newspaper and asks questions to the other two.

Segment 4: AGING ANIMALS

Pre-teach: discussion
1. What happens to old animals in the wild? In a zoo? In your community?
2. What happens to old people in other countries? In your country? Compare this
with what happens to animals. Are animals sometimes treated better than
humans? Worse than humans? Why?
3. Think about what a zookeeper would have to do to help his animals as they get
older. Write down your thoughts.

First viewing:
1. Write a typical daily schedule for Linda or Kris.
Repeat viewings: Cloze exercise
Easy cloze:
Narrator:
The U-S population is aging and its not just the __________ boomers. Here at the
National __________ in Washington, D.C., much of the __________ kingdom are
getting on in years as well. Linda Moore and Kris Sommers are __________ and part of
their __________ is the special care that older animals need.

Cloze N=7
Linda Moore, Zookeeper:
Its breakfast and pill time this __________ , this is our little pharmacy department
__________ .

Narrator:
Its eight am and the first __________ of business is an assortment of __________.

Linda Moore:
And we also have animals on __________, so weve got Maureen on several
__________ types of antibiotics. Ester has an immune __________ so this is Esters pile

here, __________ got a little pregnazone which is __________ is maintaining her right
now

Cloze N=5
Narrator:
Her special patients find __________ easier to get down __________ the gills of a
__________ head.

Linda Moore:
And now we __________ go give them their __________.

Narrator:
Maureen and Ester, a couple __________ California sea lions, await __________ Linda
Moores morning rounds __________ their own special kind of __________ lion
enthusiasm.

(Note to teachers: more cloze activities can be created using the scripts included with this
guide)
Extension: Imprinting
Birds imprint on the first thing they see when they are born, and consider that thing
mother. Research this phenomena, and what happens when the first thing a bird sees is
a human. If possible, view the movie Fly Away Home, about a girl who raises baby
geese and helps them migrate with help from her father, an airplane builder.
Group Activity: The Ideal Zoo
Pretend that you have been given a very large amount of money to create the perfect zoo.
On a large piece of paper, students create their ideal zoo. Include animals, their cages (or
lack thereof) and the reasons for including some animals and not others. Describe how
the animals will be cared for.
Group discussion:
What are the benefits of having a zoo in a city? What are some of the problems?

Segment 5: SALAMANDER STORY

Pre-teaching: Discussion

When you go to the doctor, how does he tell if you are healthy?

How can you tell if a forest is healthy? What can you look at? Trees? The water?
The air?

In this segment you will meet a man who thinks that salamanders are a good indication of
the health of a forest. How can this be? What would you look for in a salamander to tell
if the forest is healthy or not?
First viewing: True or False
1. Sam Droege hunts for salamanders. (T)
2. He is a scientist (T)
3. He counts and tracks salamanders. (T)
4. He eats salamanders. (F)
5. He thinks that the color of a salamander tells the health of a forest. (F)
6. He thinks that the number of salamanders tells the health of a forest. (T)
7. He thinks salamanders hurt a forest. (F)
8. He thinks that a healthy forest has very few salamanders. (F)
9. Salamanders can convert 98% of the food they eat into energy or body fat. (T)
10. Salamanders live for about one year. (F)
Repeat viewings: Cloze exercise
Simple Cloze:
Dr. Sam Droege, Scientist
Actually, its really __________. Theyre right ______ to an ant colony! You can really
see the florescent circles in the _______. Its just _______. Theyre __________ what the
hells going on. Theres the _________ orange florescent underbelly on _________.

Narrator:
Sam Droege is _________ to prove that the salamander can provide key _________ for
the survival of the _________ forests.

Cloze N=7
Sam Droege:
Theres a strong relationship between the _________ of salamanders in an area and
_________ amount of disturbance that a forest _________ had. So we can almost take
_________ pulse of the health of the _________ by seeing how many salamanders there
_________ around. A healthy forest has lots _________ salamanders, an unhealthy one is
poor _________ them or has none.
Narrator:
Sam Droege _________ at the Patuxent _________Preserve in the east coast state of
Maryland.

Cloze N=5
In order to see _________ accurately in salamander population, _________ and other
scientists are _________ newer, harmless methods for _________ and counting these
elusive _________. Injecting liquid elastomers seems _________ be the most humane
_________.

Lab Assistant:
Ive got three salamanders _________ there that Ive got _________ give a mark to.
_________ have one mark and _________ will be orange on _________left lower leg.
This _________ be the only salamander in _________ plot to have this _________, so if
we ever _________ him again, well know _________ big he was.
Extension: Animal journal
This activity can be done in two ways.
1. Take the class outside to a field and, with string or tape, each student should
measure a meter square on the grass. Then, with notebook and pen, list all the
insects and animals you find in your small plot of land. Compare notes with other
students.
2. For one week, keep a list of all the animals you see and how many. Compare this
list with other students. If you want to, make a chart showing the total numbers of
animals observed by the class.