What happens when grade 1/2 students take their questions beyond the walls of their classroom and to those people most qualified to answer them? We connected with Paleontologist Sean Bell, from the University of Saskatchewan. Below are some of the highlights from the conversations and meetings the students had with Sean as well as other local and distant experts.

April 16, 2002, Sean Bell said:

Endangered involves all of those things you mentioned, but also a lot more. First, it is actually one of 4 categories recognized for declining species IN THE WILD. First is Rare, meaning that there is concern and monitoring is necessary. Second is Vulnerable, meaning that the species is in some danger and action should be taken to avoid further decline. Endangered itself means that the breeding population is so small that without immediate action the species is in immediate danger of disappearance from the wild. The final category is Extinction (that's in the other Group question).

It is important to remember that these categories are used for more than just easily seen animals like eagles, whales and big cats. Any organism (living thing) can fall into these categories including insects, fish, trees, fungus, snails, flowers, reptiles, and even entire ecosystems. The problem is that a lot of them already are in one of those categories, and most of the time we can't tell, don't know, and won't ever notice.

EXTINCTION is a naturally occurring situation where a species no longer continues to breed, and its genetic lineage ends. For modern animals, extinction is a category more extreme than endangered and is broken into two parts. EXTIRPATION means that a species has been completely removed from only a part of its range. EXTINCTION means that no wild specimens have been located or tracked anywhere and are assumed gone completely. In a natural situation, extinction removes species or even entire groups of organisms (like dinosaurs, lycopod trees or trilobites) from nature due to any number of pressures including competition, predators, climate change, disease, or sometimes plain old bad luck. But extinction is not a new thing; it has gone on for BILLIONS of years and continues today (possibly 99% of all of the organisms that ever lived have gone extinct). Natural extinction is also not a bad thing--as organisms are removed, new ones evolve rapidly to replace them. Sometimes extinction...

May 29th Sean Bell said:

This is a beast (picture below) from the Eocene (~45 Million years ago) that lived in Asia. It is the largest terrestrial carnivorous mammal to have existed (as far as we know). The skull shown is on display at the American Museum of Natural History and measures more than 1 metre long! The big claim to fame is that these beasts had hooves, and may have been relatives of whales, not modern carnivores!

Sean Bell's thoughts on working with Grade 1/2 students…
When discussing paleontology topics with elementary students based on my own research, it was encouraging how many of their questions seemed as well thought out and well researched as any professional, with allowance given for terminology and sentence structure. But it was the ideas that are presented behind the questions that showed the level of thought that these children were capable of, and as a professional in a field that they are interested in, I considered it part of the job to encourage and steer the rough questions into more specific ideas, and to encourage questions and research. An important aspect of this was to give the children some credit intellectually--they already originated the ideas. There is no reason that even students at the Grade one level cannot be encouraged to do their own independent research. It is one thing to simply answer a question; I instead preferred to give a starting point from which the students could work themselves with a little guidance. I also thought it was important to never dumb down any terminology when I wrote to the students--use proper nomenclature for groups, use appropriate terminology for phenomena, try to immediately correct ideas that are outright wrong or misguided (there are NO saber-tooth tigers!). Of course, definitions were always provided for terminology, since there could be no learning if I did not explain what I was saying. The students were intelligent enough to understand and use these terms, and if they needed more information, they were free and able to ask.

Another aspect of dealing with the questions was to try not to pretend to know everything, and make it clear that scientists do not and can not know everything, and that there are no scientific absolutes (despite the best efforts of many school teachers to tell us otherwise). I preferred to simply say that I was not qualified enough to answer all of their questions, instead of making guesses and assumptions. It was my belief that in the long run, it would have been detrimental to the students to give information on subjects I did not feel competent in.
The biggest surprise when dealing with the students for me was to remember that they were in Grade one. Some of their ideas and questions, particularly on the nature and necessity of extinctions, and questions regarding speciation (minus the actual term) showed that some students at least were very capable of thinking in complex ways, and even more importantly, that they were able to communicate this thinking so that others could understand and discuss their ideas. With hard work and guidance I am hopeful that at least some of these students will always be encouraged to think and speak this way, and that they will be able to appreciate science as a way of thinking about and viewing the world, not a boring class to sit through.

Link to Virtual Asia…

The Galileo Educational Network and K2Trade are joining together to allow Grade 2 students from Bragg Creek and Red Deer Lake to journey to South East Asia virtually. Katie and Brad Kilb welcome you to their unique adventure. Their twice yearly journeys take them off the beaten path to discover the undiscovered and return with craft and culture that captures the time-honored traditions of Asia.

This telecollaborative aspect of the inquiry allowed students the opportunity to expand their ongoing work with “Extinctions” and at the same time experience another culture half a world away. It was student directed and teacher facilitated. This was made possible by using the online resource, “Community Zero.” Support and teacher mentoring was provided through the Galileo Educational Network Association, Kelly Mckie-Grenier.

While in South East Asia, Brad and Katie communicated with the two classes. The first group of students involved were curious about the way of life of students in the parts of Asia Brad and Katie are visiting. Through their study of endangered animals these students began to wonder if ways of life could become endangered as well. As Katie and Brad journey through south east Asia they look for the answers to the questions that the students here in Alberta are asking. The second group of students were interested in the role that story telling plays in the lives of the people of South East Asia.

Meeting the Experts…Face to Face
Once Katie and Brad returned to Canada students wanted the opportunity to meet with them and share their ongoing work. Students, teachers and parents along with Galileo members went on a field trip to their gallery, “Urban Balance” to meet in person. Katie and Brad welcomed us to their unique adventure by sharing artifacts they had collected as well as the photo images they had taken. Students shared their favorite images along with stories they had written in response to those images. This trip brought the students full circle and allowed them the unique opportunity to meet the individuals that had been “experts” online.