Materials
Whatever your students decide to use

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Procedures

1. Have students think about an environment in the local area (depending on where you live in South Carolina, this could be a mountain forest, a swamp, the ocean, etc.). Have students list some of the plants and animals that are common in the wildlife community found in this environment.
2. Have the students think about and discuss whether the same wildlife community would have existed in the area before people moved in. Have them think about how people have changed the environment in and around their area and how this has affected local wildlife communities.
3. Ask students to research (see Resources list for reference materials) what the wildlife community is like around their area and how it has changed since people have moved there. As a class, have students develop a visual project (a poster, a website, a book, a diorama, etc.) to illustrate the changes that have occurred in the wildlife communities. If changes have occurred in the wildlife community, have students discuss the what, why and how of these changes.
4. Have students consider everything that they have learned about communities, both in the classroom and at their visit to the South Carolina Aquarium, to determine what they can do to help local wildlife communities. Have them discuss and develop an action plan for a project that they can do (let them come up with their own ideas, but if they have trouble suggest some from below). Have them implement this plan to get involved in conserving local wildlife.

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Ideas

• Start a recycling program in the school.
• Start a composting program with cafeteria leftovers.
• Do a litter pick-up somewhere in the community.
• Write letters to politicians about conservation issues.
• Start an education campaign in school to educate others about conservation issues (create posters, website, etc.).
• Plant native plants in schoolyard or build bird and bat houses to create habitat.
• Participate in one of these national conservation agencies student involvement programs:
  • National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitats Program
    http://www.nwf.org/habitats/
    schoolyard/program.cfm
  • World Wildlife Fund Pennies for the Planet Program
    http://www.worldwildlife.org/
    default.cfm?newspaperid=11
  • National Audubon Society Earth Stewards Program
    http://www.audubon.org/
    campaign/refuge/earthstewards.html

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Follow-up Questions

• Are there any wildlife communities left in the area that have not been affected by man? In the state? In the country? In the world? ·
• What other organisms can change their environment? (All of them in some ways. See "Living vs. Non-Living" Activity background info in the K-2 curriculum.)