Welcome to the Teacher Toolbox! Here you will find a broad variety of instructional resources to compliment your students' viewing of Saving a Species: Tigers. Use these materials to construct lesson plans, spark discussion, and inspire your students to become active participants in preserving the world we share with wildlife.
See Tiger Video Series
Reference
Vocabulary
- adaptation: a modification of an organism that makes it more suited to live in its environment. Adaptations help an organism survive.
- biodiversity: the genetic variability of living organisms on our planet.
- camouflage: an adaptation that helps a species blend in with its surroundings.
- carnivore: flesh eating animal.
- conservation: taking care of our environment by wisely managing its resources.
- ecosystem: a unit of plants, animals, and nonliving components of an environment that interact.
- endangered species: a species of plant or animal of which numbers are decreasing at an alarming rate and is threatened with extinction by human-made or natural changes in the environment.
- food chain: a simple straight line diagram that shows "who eats whom" in an ecosystem.
- food web: a diagram that shows the many complex interconnections of "who eats whom" in an ecosystem.
- habitat: the place where a plant or an animal lives.
- poaching: illegal hunting or collecting.
- population: a group of plants or animals of the same species that live in the same area and have the opportunity to breed with each other.
- predator: an animal that eats other animals.
- preservation: protecting resources, ecosystems, and structures for present and future generations.
- prey: v; to hunt and eat other animals. n; an animal eaten by another animal.
- threatened: facing possible threat of extinction, but not facing as great a threat as an endangered species. Threatened species may become endangered.
- vocalization: sounds produced for auditory communication.
Resources
Activity Descriptions | K-4
Activity Descriptions | 5-8
Activity Descriptions | 9-12
Teacher's Guides
Pre & Post-Viewing Questions
Helping Tigers
- What are two significant impacts on tiger populations and why are scientists and conservationists hopeful that the situation for tigers can be turned around?
- No matter where you live, you can help protect tigers. Brainstorm ways you and your family can help save tigers from extinction.
Tiger Life
- Tigers are exceptional hunters. Can you give two examples of adaptations tigers have that help make them perfect predators?
- Some of the tiger's excellent adaptations have made them targets for poachers. What is poaching and what impact it is having on tiger populations?
Tiger Myths
- Many people mistakenly assume that tigers live in Africa alongside lions. Where are tigers actually found?
- The white coloration of some tigers makes it more difficult for them to survive in the wild. What are some reasons why this is so? Do tigers come in other colors as well?
- Most cats avoid water, but not the tiger. How does the tiger's willingness to enter water help them hunt?
Tigers at Risk
- In spite of being well-adapted, efficient predators, tigers are in danger of becoming extinct in the wild. Can you name some of the human activities that are putting tigers at risk?
- If you were going to design a conservation program to help tigers in Southeast Asia what would be the first issue you would want to address and what would you do?
Tiger Talking
- Tigers communicate with each other in several ways. Can you give some examples of the types of sounds tigers make and why they make them?
- In zoological parks, communicating with tigers can be very important for their care. Can you think of some of the benefits of training tigers?
Tiger Territory
- The tiger's historic range used to be quite extensive. On a map identify and compare the tiger's historic range to its modern day range. Explain why it's different.
- Tigers are apex predators. What does this term mean and what role does it play in the ecosystem?
