Interest Approach Reflection

This week's lesson was focused on interest approaches. Interest approaches are really important to lessons because they help drive student interest and engage students. I got to see a lot of cool interest approaches from my cohort members. One of my favorite ones was Abbie Smith's macroinvertebrates interest approach. That activity got me hooked and I wanted to keep learning. That is the key to a quality interest approach.

For my lesson, I chose Ag 1, Intro to Wildlife course. The lesson was about the history of wildlife conservation. The goal of this lesson is to get students exposed to the history of wildlife conservation. It is so important to know the past because it helps to explain why we have habitats, species presence, and most of all the legislation to support it.

Here a link to the presentation that is shown above: Timeline of Wildlife Conservation

We went over all the important legislation and events that occurred that would later define the North American model of wildlife conservation. Later in the lesson, we would explain the individuals responsible for helping fight for wildlife conservation.

My interest approach we really well. I played a matching game where all the students received an a deck of cards and they had to match a description to a title. Yes, it was complete guessing since the students haven't learned about the information yet. But they were instructed to put the descriptions in order that would make sense for the series of conservation.

All the students performed very well! The only change that would need to be made is partnering. In my lesson plan, I suggested breaking students into groups of 4. Instead, I like the idea of partnering, making more students participate and think through each description and event/legislation.

Below is a sample of the title and date with its connected description:

Yellowstone Founded 1872

This was the first ever national park in the United States and the World. This created a movement to preserve natural places and their environments. 

Pennsylvania Game Commission 1895

This state agency was created to manage and protect wildlife and their habitat for commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 

Lacey Act 1900

Prohibits the trade of fish, wildlife, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold. 

Organic Act of 1916

Created a federal agency under the United States Department of the Interior to protect natural places, environments, ecosystems, and monuments at all costs for the enjoyment of future generations. The National Park Service was born. 

Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 

Prohibits to pursue, hunt, take, capture, or sell birds listed as migratory birds. This also protects living and dead bird parts, feathers, eggs and nests. 

Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929
Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (MBCC) to consider and approve any areas of land and/or water recommended by the Secretary of the Interior for purchase or rental by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Migratory Bird Hunting Act 1934

Requires each migratory bird hunter 16 years of age or older to possess a valid Federal hunting stamp. Receipts from the sale of the stamp are deposited in a special Treasury account known as the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund. 

Pittman-Robertson Act 1937

Many species of wildlife were driven to or near extinction by market hunting pressure and/or habitat degradation from humans. The Act created an excise tax that provides funds to each state to manage such animals and their habitats

US Fish and Wildlife Service 1940 

This agency truly began in 1871 as the US Commission on Fish and Fisheries but was renamed in later years. This is the only agency in the federal government that its sole purpose is to manage and protect fish and wildlife for the natural public. 

1962 Silent Spring 

This book raised awareness for large-scale use of pesticides and informed the public about conservation. This book resulted in banning multiple pesticides from the United States including DDT. DDT was a pesticide that had major negative impacts on birds and bird reproduction. 

Endangered Species Act 1973
Administered by the USFWS, this creates a federal list of endangered species. These species become federally protected and these species begin to receive funding for restoration work.