Elephants+and+Wolves+ML15

Watch the video How Wolves Change Rivers.

 * 1) Discuss answers to the following questions as a group: (1) What is a trophic cascade? (2) What is a food chain? (3) How long had the wolves been absent from Yellowstone? (4) Without wolves, how did the increasing deer population affect the ecology of Yellowstone? (5) How did the deer react when the wolves were reintroduced? (6) What does "regenerate" mean? What caused the trees to begin to regenerate? (7) What helped the beaver population to increase? (8) What is a "niche"? How did the increasing beaver population create additional niches? (9) How did this trophic cascade cause the rivers to become more stable? Provide specific examples of the changes to the rivers and river banks.
 * 2) Discuss in groups how the photography and sound tract help to support the scientific information and help to develop a deeper understanding of factors that influence the ecology of the area.
 * 3) Who created this video? What is the producer's academic background for work? What is the source of the information?

__**Answers;**__
 * 1. **
 * 1) A trophic cascade is when there is a predator that basically controls how the food web operates.
 * 2) A food chain is when there a sequence of animals that is the food of the next animal in the chain.
 * 3) The wolves had been absent from Yellowstone
 * 4) Without wolves the population of the deer skyrocketed. This had a negative effect, the deer were eating all of the willow that the beaver also needed. The beaver, having little food left leaving no more dams.
 * 5) When the wolves were introduced again, the deer
 * 6) Regenerate means to be formed or created again.
 * 7) The beaver population increased because, when the wolves were brought back to Yellowstone, they killed a lot of the deer. Doing that, there was more willow to go around, which was what the beavers ate.
 * 8) A niche is a habitat supplying the factors necessary for the existence of an organism or species. With the increase of beaver population, there were more dams being built. That helped because
 * 9) This caused the rivers to be more stable because it forced the water to


 * 2.** The photography and sound tract help to support the scientific information and help to develop a deeper understanding of factors that influence the ecology of the area because they useed close up images of everything they talked about. The sound tract helped capture your attention and helped the video flow along. The photography helped you understand what they were talking about and how it changed it's appearance-it helped give us a visual.


 * 3.** George Monbiot created this video. You can find this information if you click the "i" button in the top right corner of the video, the "i" stands for information about the video. He has an academic background with an M.A. in zoology.

Read Has the Reintroduction of Wolves Really Saved Yellowstone. from the Popular Science website

 * 1) Discuss answers to the following questions as a group: (1) With the wolves absent from Yellowstone park, what happened to the elk population? (2) How did the elk population affect the trees, especially the willow trees? (3) What is a food web? Why is the wolf an "apex predator" in a food web? (4) What is one of the main animals that wolves eat? (5) Why are the willows in some areas not recovering very fast? (6) What is one reason the beaver population decreased while the wolves were absent from the area? (7) What are other factors that might have affected the population of elks and beavers?
 * 2) Compare reading the article with watching the video. Which was easier to understand? Why?
 * 3) Who wrote this article? What is the writer's academic background for work? What is the source of the information?

__**Answers:**__


 * 1.**
 * 1) With the wolves gone from Yellowstone the elk population grew by a very large amount.
 * 2) The elk population grew so much that they started eating all of the willows, faster than it takes for more willows to grow. So the willow forest lessened and the ebavers who also depended on the willow for food, left.
 * 3) A food web is a series of organisms related by predator-prey.
 * 4) The wolf is an apex predator because they are the only predators to themselves, they have no other predator.
 * 5) The willows are not recovering very fast because the elk and the beaver are eating them too fast for the willow to grow again.
 * 6) One reason that the beaver population decreased while the wolves were gone is because the elk population got too big and started eating all of their food.
 * 7) The other factors that might have affected the population of elks and beavers is the climate, food, fresh water, and a safe environment.


 * 2.** I think that the video was a lot easier to understand. One reason is that I am a visual learner. so the pictures helped me understand what was going on. Another reason is that the the article uses bigger words and I think that is because it might be more for adults.


 * 3. ,** Emily Gertz wrote the article. I found this because it is at the top of the article. Her academic background is

Summary - Discuss the following: Why is important to understand

 * 1) Who created a message?
 * 2) What is the target audience?
 * 3) What creative techniques can be used to attract attention?
 * 4) How might different people understand a message differently?
 * 5) Why is a message being sent?


 * You've read the eBook Elephants Under Pressure and you've watched Assignment America.**
 * 1) **Which gave you more detailed and fact-based information about elephants and elephant society? Justify your answer with examples.** I think that //Elephants Under Pressure// gives more fact-based information about elephants and elephant society than //Assignment America// because //Assignment America// only focuses on one elephants story. Elephants Under Pressure focuses on facts that include all of the elephants, not just the story of one elephant. Not all elephants have that story so it doesn't really have any good facts that could help you make an overall judgement about all elephants.
 * 2) **Which was the most successful in helping you to understand animal relationships? Justify your answer with examples.** Definitely Assignment America, Elephants Under Pressure talks about it a little bit with saying that they like to travel in packs. With Assignment America you learn and understand a lot more that elephants like being with a friend or pack. Tarra, the elephant in Assignment America, doesn't have another elephant friend to hang out with, so she turns to Bella, the stray dog, for a friend.


 * Watch the movie How Wolves Change Rivers.**
 * 1) **Write a summary of the scientific facts as presented in the video.**
 * 2) **Discuss how the photography and sound tract help to support the scientific information and help to develop a deeper understanding of factors that influence the ecology of the area.**
 * 3) **Who created this video? What is the producer's academic background for work? What is the source of the information?**


 * Read Has the Reintroduction of Wolves Really Saved Yellowstone.**
 * 1) **Write a summary of the scientific facts as presented in the article.**
 * 2) **Compare and contrast the facts presented in the article with the facts presented in the video.**
 * 3) **Who wrote this article? What is the writer's academic background for work? What is the source of the information?**


 * Write a prediction:**
 * 1) **How might controlling the migration of elephants impact the environment? Justify your answer.**


 * Summary - Discuss the following: Why is important to understand**
 * 1) **Who created the message?** The message was created by Emily Gertz, I would assume that she is someone who is either part of the Yellowstone National Park Ranger or someone who really cares about ecology or animals.
 * 2) **What is the target audience?** The target audience is everyone. They want everyone to know that this is going on so that the people can voice their opinion. If they get enough people to go against what the Yellowstone National Park did, the rangers would bring back the wolves and hopefully they can fix the problem before there is any actual damage.Also, so that people don't make this mistake again.
 * 3) **What creative techniques are used to attract attention?** They used pictures, headlines, and popular sites to attract people's attention
 * 4) **How might different people understand this message differently?** Some people might think that the message is to not mess with nature, or they might think that the message is
 * 5) **What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?** The values and lifestyles in this message are to just let nature take its course and
 * 6) **Why is this message being sent?**