Lesson video

Hello everyone!

How are you doing?

Hope you're feeling really, really good.

My name is Ms. Afzal, and I'll be your teacher for this lesson.

I'm feeling good about that because today we are gonna be looking at a very important topic.

It's animals in danger.

So it's quite a serious topic, but it's an important one for us to spend some time reflecting on.

It comes from the unit of work, living things, and the environment.

I wonder if it's something you've been considering yourselves, if it's something you've thought about.

How are animals doing in the world?

Are there animals are in danger?

Are there animals that need more care and protection?

We'll be getting right into all of that today.

So if you're ready with some energy, focus, and enthusiasm, we'll begin our lesson now.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can understand that changes to environments can sometimes pose dangers to animals.

We have some keywords in our lesson.

Let's go through them.

My turn, your turn.

Environment, endangered, estimate, researcher.

Good to hear those words, environment, endangered, estimate, and researcher.

Let's find out what these keywords mean.

An environment is the surroundings of a living thing, including other plants or animals and the conditions they live in.

An endangered plant or animal is one that is at risk of becoming extinct.

An estimate is a quick calculation of what the size, value, or amount of something might be, and a researcher is someone who studies a subject, especially in order to discover new information or reach a new understanding.

Pause here and share with someone.

Have you heard of any of these four keywords before?

Thanks for sharing, and don't worry whether you've heard of them or even if you haven't.

We are gonna be getting into all of these words and learning a lot more about them in our lesson today.

So stay tuned.

Today's lesson is called "Animals in Danger," and it has two learning cycles.

First of all, changing environments, and next, researching the impact of changing environments.

Let's begin with changing environments.

Here we have Sam and Alex and they have gone to the park to explore their local environment, so we can see their local park.

Very nice looking park.

Explain to a partner what we mean by environment.

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Thanks for sharing.

An environment is the surroundings of a living thing, including plants or animals and the conditions they live in.

Here's Sam.

I've observed different animals in this environment.

I wonder why they live here.

There we can see a squirrel in the park.

Do you know?

Why do you think there are different animals living in this environment of the park?

Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

Environments must contain all the things required for living things to survive and grow.

What does the park provide for these squirrels?

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Thanks for sharing.

Here's Alex.

The local park provides animals like squirrels with food, water, air, and shelter.

I wonder if that's what you came up with as well.

Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false, environments only provide places for animals to live.

Pause here and decide, is this statement true or false?

Well done if you said false.

And now I'd like you to give a reason for your answer.

Pause here while you do this.

Perhaps you said something like this.

An animal's environment must contain all the things required for living things to survive and grow.

This includes food, water, and air, as well as shelter and protection.

Well done if you gave an answer like this.

Let's have another check for understanding.

Which of these would provide what a hedgehog needs to grow and survive?

Is it environment A, B, or C, a desert, grassland and wood, or car park?

Pause here while you decide.

Well done if you selected answer B.

Indeed, it's the grassland and wood which would provide everything that a hedgehog needs to grow and survive.

Don't think they'd get on very well in a desert or a car park.

Sam and Alex are watching a television program about how environments can sometimes change.

Here's Sam.

I learned that when environments change, plants and animals can become endangered.

That means that they're at risk of becoming extinct.

This is serious.

And here's Alex.

I wonder what changes are happening to their environments.

Do you have any ideas?

Pause here and share with someone, how are their environments changing?

Thanks for sharing.

Hawksbill turtles need healthy coral reefs, clean coastal waters, and safe sandy beaches to provide food, shelter, and somewhere to lay their eggs.

This is sad what's coming up next.

Human actions including plastic waste in the sea, use of fishing nets, and illegal hunting are changing the environment that Hawksbill turtles depend on so they have become endangered.

Pause here and show someone your reaction to this.

Thanks for sharing.

I'm imagining a mixture of maybe sadness, upset, frustration, even anger that these things can be happening to endanger the Hawksbill turtles.

Bornean orangutans are endangered mainly due to habitat loss from deforestation, logging, and palm oil plantations.

Human actions including deforestation, are changing the environment that orangutans depend on, so they have become endangered.

The animals on the television program live in countries far away from where I live.

Are there any endangered animals in the UK?

What do you think?

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Thanks for sharing.

Here's Alex.

Yes, some types of bats, birds, bees, mice, and other animals are endangered in the UK.

Also, animals such as hedgehogs are not yet endangered, but their numbers are steadily decreasing.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these changes to environments can cause danger to the animals within them?

Is it A, plastic waste, B, planting trees, C, putting up nest boxes, D, deforestation?

Pause here while you decide.

Well done if you selected answers A and D.

Indeed, plastic waste and deforestation are changes to environments that can cause danger to the animals within them.

And now it's time for your first task.

I would like you to choose an environment to find out more about.

You could choose river, forest, beach, desert, or another environment.

Use junk materials to create a model of this environment in a recycled box.

Aim to include what an animal that lives there needs to grow and survive.

Share your model with a partner and talk about how this environment could change and cause danger to the animals that depend on it.

So pause here while you choose your environment to find out more about and then create your model of this environment and talk through with a partner how your environment could change and cause danger to the animals that depend on it.

I'll see you when you're finished.

It is good to be back with you.

So how did you get on with your task?

I can see a wonderful forest habitat model there.

I love seeing the sky, the trees and the grass and the water, and a beautiful deer.

And how did you get on with talking to a partner about how your chosen environment could change and cause danger to the animals that depend on it?

Here's an example.

Many animals live in the forest.

It provides plants for animals to eat and shelter in, like snakes and tree frogs.

It provides water for frogs to hunt in and dragonflies to lay their eggs in.

Deforestation and pollution can leave the animals in danger with nowhere to shelter, less food to eat, and dirty water to hunt or lay their eggs in.

Are your ideas similar or different to this?

Pause here and share with someone.

Well done for having a go at this task.

And now we're onto our next learning cycle, researching the impact of changing environments.

Sam and Alex are talking about animals in danger.

Here's Sam.

How do we know that an animal is endangered?

Alex, I wonder if a team of people count how many animals there are every year.

They can use this information to calculate if the numbers are decreasing and whether the animals have become endangered.

What do you think?

Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

Researchers estimate the number of animals in different environments.

Here we can see a grassland environment, so stunning.

Why might this be a challenging task to estimate the number of animals in different environments?

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Why might this be challenging?

Thanks for sharing.

It can be difficult to estimate the number of animals because some animals move fast or in large groups that are hard to count, for example, this shoal of fish.

It's not always easy to spot animals in their environment as they hide away from predators.

And here we can see or barely see a chipmunk in a tree.

Pause here and share with someone.

Can you see the chipmunk?

Thanks for sharing.

Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false, it's easy to count the exact number of animals in an environment.

Pause here and share with someone.

Is this true or false?

Well done if you selected false.

And now I'd like you to say a little more about your answer.

Pause here while you do this.

Perhaps you said something like this.

Animals can be very hard to spot in their environments.

There can be so many moving around that it's hard to know which ones have already been counted.

Researchers often estimate the number of plants or animals instead of counting them all.

This can be done in different ways.

Do you know what researchers do in order to help them to estimate population numbers?

Pause here and share with someone if you do.

Thanks for sharing.

Researchers sometimes carry out surveys of animals.

This means they observe and count animals in lots of different places and use these numbers to estimate how many there are in total.

Here's Laura.

We did this when we counted garden birds for a national survey.

We counted which different birds landed in the school garden and used this information to estimate how many there were in total.

And there we can see some birds on a feeder.

So lovely if you have a garden to put up a bird feeder and observe the birds that come in to feed.

Sometimes researchers capture a few animals without hurting them, mark them in a harmless way, then release them.

Later another sample of animals is captured and researchers count how many are marked and unmarked and use this to help them to estimate the total number.

This method is called capture-mark-recapture.

And we can see someone there in the image tagging a bird with a leg ring to help them take part in this kind of research.

Here's Laura.

Sometimes the researchers don't see the animals at all, but they can tell that they've been there.

How might they know this?

Pause here and share with someone.

What do you think?

Anything they might leave behind?

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

They observe samples of animal droppings or prints in the ground to identify which animals are in the environment.

The number of droppings or prints can help researchers to estimate the number of animals that have been there and there we can see a charming picture of some droppings and we can see some prints in the snow.

Researchers often take photos of the areas they want to estimate the number of animals in using technology such as drones.

You can see a drone with a camera attached.

Drones are radio-controlled robots that have cameras attached to them.

They make it easier to survey large areas that are difficult to reach on foot.

Researchers then ask volunteers to help them count all the animals in the photographs.

This is a good method for animals that move around a lot.

Researchers can repeat their estimates at different times to see if changes to an environment have posed dangers to the animals that live there.

Researchers discovered that the building of this new road through the middle of a forest caused the number of rabbits, badgers, and deer in this environment to decrease.

Let's have a check for understanding.

How do researchers estimate the number of animals in the wild?

Is it A, count every animal, B, count the number of animals in lots of places as part of a larger survey, or C, use capture-mark-release?

Pause here while you decide how researchers estimate the number of animals in the wild.

Well done if you selected answers B and C.

Indeed, they count the number of animals in lots of places as part of a larger survey and they use capture-mark-release.

And now it's time for your next task.

You've been given a task of finding out whether flamingos are at risk of becoming endangered.

To do this, you need to estimate the number of flamingos in their environment.

Explain to a partner what you think would be the best way to estimate their numbers.

Pause here while you have a go at this task.

How will you estimate the number of flamingos?

I'll see you when you're finished.

It's good to be back with you.

So how did you get on with deciding how you would estimate the number of animals in their environment?

Here's Laura.

I would use the capture-mark-recapture method.

I would first capture some flamingos and use a leg ring to mark them.

I would then let them go.

A few days later, I would capture some more flamingos and use the number of them that had a leg ring to help me estimate the total number of them.

Good thinking, Laura.

Wonder if you had an idea like this?

And here's Alex.

I would use a drone to take a photo of all the flamingos in an area.

I would then ask volunteers to help me to count all the birds in the photograph.

I would then use this to help me to estimate how many flamingos live in the wild.

Another fantastic idea.

I wonder if you had an idea like this one, too.

Well done for having a go at this task.

In our lesson, "Animals in Danger," we have covered the following.

Environments must contain all the things required for living things to survive and grow.

Changes to environments can cause danger to the animals within them.

Estimating the number of animals in an environment can be a challenging task and can be done in different ways.

Researchers may directly observe animals in the wild and also use technology such as drones to survey large areas.

Well done everyone for joining in with this lesson, this very important lesson.

It's a sad fact that animals are in danger and that their environments are changing.

But it's important for us to be aware of this so that we can maybe act differently and help protect animals and protect their environments so that more and more species can continue to thrive in the wild.

Let's protect our precious planet.

I've really enjoyed teaching you and I hope you've enjoyed this lesson even though I know parts of it have felt, have been quite sad and quite serious.

But I'm sure with all your knowledge about environments, changes in environments, and animals in danger, you can help to protect wildlife.

I look forward to seeing yet another lesson soon.

Until then, stay curious.