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Critter Control Project
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Critter Control Mission Statement
The community-mapping project will ignite an intrinsic motivation for our 2nd, 4th, and high school students in Hayden, through purposeful learning, to own and be responsible for lifelong learning. In active collaboration with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Routt County Sheriff’s Office and the Colorado State Patrol we will help collect important data that will be used to implement solutions for the on-going problem of animals being killed on Highway 40.
Critter Control Interactive Map
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What is the Critter Control Project
Process
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What is the Critter Control Project
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- A hands-on educational experience that has been developed to meet Colorado State Standards in science, social studies, geography, history, math, reading, writing, technology, and public speaking. The students will create maps, charts and tables to help the CDOW answer real life questions and problems. Our community-mapping project will give our students tools for active place-based learning and community improvement.
- Students will learn how to use GIS software systems designed to organize information about places on earth.
- We will be addressing the following questions. What might have attracted the animal to the area of highway on which it was killed? How might the surrounding environment relate to the death of the animal? About how old are the animals being killed? What types of animals are being killed the most? How many vehicles do auto repair shops see in a year from the result of collisions with animals on the highway?
- Possible outcomes of our project: new signs to warn drivers to proceed with caution and fencing areas parallel to the highway.
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Process
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Throughout the school year students worked as scientists gathering data for the CDOW (Jim Haskins). Students worked both in and out of the classroom in small groups. Major field trips used GPS to mark the highway locations of "road-kill" or wildlife killed by vehicles. Two second, fourth, and high school students teamed up with an adult facilitator. Routt County Sheriff’s deputies and Colorado State Patrol officers monitored traffic. The data waas downloaded to class computers and the students began map making.
Throughout the school year students had the opportunity to be go out in a team of 4 with at least 2 adults to record information pertaining to reported animal deaths. The goal was to have every child go out on one mission. Child’s safety was a priority; they wore orange vests and were highly supervised.
Parents were invited to participate in field data missions.
Teachers attended summer training courses to learn how to implement such a project. They met with professional community leaders to organize the details, and launched the project with CDOW Officer Jim Haskins coming in to speak with the students. In the spring the students will be presented their learning experiences to several different audiences. Each child was a star as they presented real information and answered questions they helped find answers to; they radiated with confidence they gained through this hands-on classroom experience.
Documents/Forms:
Critter Control Data Sheet
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![Students presented their findings at a Public Presentation [Click here to view full size picture]](media/education/tn_p1010030.jpg)
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![Students presented their findings at a Public Presentation [Click here to view full size picture]](javascript:showPic(new picObj('media/education/p1010030.jpg', 'Students presented their findings at a Public Presentation',800,600));)