A bird that once filled the sky was gone by 1914. What makes a kind of living thing disappear, and what can anyone do about it?
Not started yet.
Students will define extinction, separate natural causes from the ones people add, and describe two ways endangered species are saved: protecting the places they live and breeding them in captivity.
This lesson isn't an origins argument, so there's no sorting of observed against claimed. The fossil record's natural extinctions are stated plainly, and the caring at the end is described as the same work whichever account of origins a student holds.
The lesson doesn't use extinction to argue for either account.
Extinction is natural, but the rate matters. People have raised it by destroying habitat and food supplies, so most of what's being lost today is lost faster than a species can adapt.
There are two kinds of rescue: save the place, or breed the animals and release them. The book says to do both.
The dodo and the last passenger pigeon are added from the historical record. The tiger numbers and the estimate of a fourth of all species are the 1994 book's own figures, and the lesson says they're dated. The book's own parts are the definition, the natural and human causes, the Nature Conservancy and the tiger embryo transfer.
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Before You Start
The words this lesson uses. Tap a card to see what it means, then come back to them whenever a question uses one.
Part One
Questions about the story you just read. Pick your answer straight off, or press Find it in the story if you would rather hunt for the sentence first.
Part Two
The word cards are at the top of this page. Look back at them as often as you need, then answer.