The unit is designed for middle school students, but it can be adapted for the high school and upper elementary levels. The activities offer students speaking, research, and teaching roles as they progress through the unit. The unit supports innovative strategies in education, such as: Inquiry-based instruction: Students develop and address questions about habitats based on general facts about an animal, and they design an experiment that would help land managers assess the relative effectiveness of strategies to promote healthy habitats. Social and emotional learning: Students participate in small groups in which they need to work together, develop slideshows to present content to other students, listen and speak to one another, and collaborate. Interdisciplinary instruction: While the unit focuses on facts about habitats and wildlife, it also addresses key concepts in social studies and English language arts. For social studies, students examine how a federal agency works with other agencies and the public to monitor habitats; for English language arts, they use evidence to interpret documents about wildlife and synthesize facts into a slideshow about habitats.

Electronic reproduction.

Activity 1: Illustrate Habitat Essentials -- Activity 2: Monitor Habitat Health -- Activity 3: Initiate a Habitat Internet -- Activity 4: Design a Habitat Experiment.