Virginia Beach students study endangered red wolves

VIRGINIA BEACH

The students in Pam Crichton’s third-grade class will never associate wolves with the one they read about in “Little Red Riding Hood” again.

The Centerville Elementary School students recently completed a project about one of the world’s most endangered animal species – the red wolf.

They researched how to save them from extinction.

Although most of the students in Crichton’s class have never actually seen a red wolf, the youngsters are well-versed when it comes to the creature’s behaviors, instincts, nutritional habits, habitat and more.

“You are experts,” said Kim Vaughan, gifted resource teacher who led the problem-based learning unit with Crichton.

Vaughan encouraged the 8- and 9-year-olds as they prepared for their first Skype session to compare data with a third-grade class at Newtown Elementary School. Students in Ryan Simpson’s class also worked with their gifted resource teacher, Debbie Given, and participated in the same unit.

The project began when the classes were presented with a dilemma based on an imaginary letter received from a park ranger stating red wolf pups were found in Pungo.

From there, the children worked in groups to conduct extensive research, come up with a solution to the problem and help decide what was best for the pups.

A trunk filled with animal pelts, bones, teeth, footprints and more was delivered to help with their study.

During their research, they blogged about their project on Wiki Space and used an online organizational tool called Livebinder.

“We don’t just let them go to the computer and search,” Crichton said. “Livebinder is like a three-ring binder online. Each tab has a link for them to find out more about the red wolves.”

The majority of students, from both Centerville and Newtown, felt the pups should be released to a wildlife refuge. Only one group made the recommendation to release them into the wild.

Each group took turns supporting its decision by stating the wolves would be well-fed, maintain their survival skills, be kept healthy and safe, and ultimately increase their population by living in a refuge.

Aidan Hill said the best part of the pro-ject was conducting the research.

“It was fun, but we found that there are not a lot of books on the red wolves,” said Aidan, 8.

Julia Carter, 8, said she learned a lot about the red wolves, including that the pups may be left behind to survive on their own if they are not strong enough to travel with the pack. At the end of the project, students said they felt they made a contribution to the survival of the red wolves for future generations.