Fourth grade students in the Franklin Square Union Free School District’s Compass enrichment program recently completed a conservation project that combined research, writing, art and publishing.
Students were each assigned an animal to study and researched topics including diet, physical characteristics, habitat loss and conservation efforts. Animals featured in the project included dolphins, red pandas, sharks, snow leopards, tigers and whale sharks.
Using their research, students created and published original conservation books that highlighted both their knowledge and creativity. In addition to illustrating their animals, students selected three unique formats to express concerns about their species’ conservation status. Their projects included letters to prey animals, courtroom transcripts, fun facts and quizzes. Artwork featured habitat diagrams, food webs, wanted posters and cartoons.
“Students enjoyed having the opportunity to choose their expression and becoming published authors,” Compass teacher Maggie Tittler said.
As part of the project, each student received a Fahlo bracelet that allows users to scan a QR code and track an animal in the wild. The bracelets were donated by Christina Koslowski, her daughter, Nicole, and their family.
Koslowski said she was inspired to support the project after seeing advertisements for Fahlo while playing Boggle. She also recalled how much Nicole enjoyed participating in a quail conservation project while a student in Tittler’s class and hoped the bracelets would inspire this year’s students in a similar way.
To celebrate the completion of their books, Compass students from the district’s three elementary schools gathered on June 8 to share their projects and commemorate their experience as published authors.
