This activity is part of the Detours and Distractions: How Humans Impact Migration Patterns unit.
 
l. Introduce evidence-based arguments.

• Explain to students that they will prepare and present an evidence-based argument that takes a stand on human impacts on animal migration.
• On the board, define more clearly each of the following components of an evidence-based argument:
• Question: Why should your recommended solution(s) to animal migration be implemented by your stakeholders?
• Claim: What is your answer to the question? Your claim should state your position. For example, “[Our recommended solution] is effective because it will...”
• Evidence: What data supports your claim? You should have multiple pieces of evidence gathered from your research.
• Reasoning: How does your evidence support your claim? You should provide reasoning for all evidence.
• Show the Wildlife Crossings Stop Roadkill. Why Aren’t There More? video. As the video is playing, encourage students to identify the question, claim, evidence, and reasoning from the video. As a class, have students share what they have identified.
• Question: Why aren’t there more wildlife crossings when they have been shown to prevent roadkill?
• Claim: Wildlife crossings prevent roadkill, but they are expensive to install. When design solutions are identified that are more cost effective, more wildlife crossings can be built.
• Evidence: Wildlife crossings that are already made (like in Banff, Canada), tracking data that show individual animals using the crossings, camera trap videos showing different kinds of animals using the crossings. When a cheaper design solution was identified through a design contest, Colorado agreed to install it.
• Reasoning: Data show that wildlife crossings are effective, and that states agreed to install a wildlife crossing when the cost was more reasonable. This shows that when wildlife crossings become more affordable, more will be built.
• Ask students: Why are evidence-based arguments important? (They support critical thinking, provide support for making decisions and forming opinions, and help to express content knowledge in an accurate and fair way.)

• Distribute the Presentation Rubric to each student and orient students to expectations.
• The objective for the presenting group is to convince key stakeholders (role-played by their classmates) that they should implement their recommended solution.
• The stakeholders will be identified and defined by student groups, and will be portrayed by another student group that will evaluate their argument during presentations. Each student in the listening group will evaluate from the perspective of one stakeholder.
• To be successful at this presentation, groups will need to think from the perspective of different stakeholders, and provide evidence and reasoning to support their claims.
• Groups will research, gather, and organize evidence to support their argument. Their completed unit project maps, with its animal migration base layer, ecosystem layer, and human impact layer, will act as a key piece of evidence for their argument.
• The objective for the listening group is to decide, from each stakeholder’s perspective, whether they should approve the solution recommended, whether they should offer revisions, or whether they will not approve the solution.
• Whatever they decide, they must provide reasoning to back up their decision. Each stakeholder’s reasoning will be a part of the presenting group’s assessment, and the reasoning for the stakeholder’s decision should be persuasive and fair (e.g., stakeholders cannot just say “because we think so.”).
• Orient students to the presentation method and parameters.

• Distribute the following documents to each group:
• Sample Stakeholder Descriptions
• Stakeholder Descriptions and Evaluations
• Ask students to retrieve their Exploring Solutions to Animal Migration Problems handout.
• This was completed during the Exploring Solutions to Human Impacts on Animal Migration activity. Students will use this handout now to guide how they identify and define their stakeholders.
• Allow students to read the Example Stakeholder Descriptions handout and work in their groups to complete the stakeholder descriptions on the Stakeholder Descriptions and Evaluations handout.
• After students have completed this, collect their Stakeholder Descriptions and Evaluations handout and, while they are working on their presentations, make enough copies for the listening group (e.g., if there are four students in every group, four copies should be made so that each student can represent a different stakeholder).

• Prompt students to retrieve all of the completed handouts, thought organizers, Know & Need to Know charts, and all other articles, videos, encyclopedic entries, and resources used throughout the unit.
• Set boundaries for students on how much additional research is expected. Encourage students to limit their research to only what is necessary to support their arguments. As needed, provide instruction for effective online research and online literacy.
• As students are working, remind them to keep in mind the different stakeholders they are trying to convince. Make sure that for every different claim they make (which may be a different claim for each different stakeholder) there is evidence to support their claim.
• Focus students’ research with questions like:
• What pieces of evidence are you using to support your claim? How many pieces of evidence do you have to support your claim? Is that enough to convince all stakeholders?
• Do any of your stakeholders need to see different kinds of evidence to be convinced?
• How does this piece of evidence support your claim? What is the reasoning behind this?
• How are you going to present all of this information in a clear way?
• Do you have any visuals or pictures to support your textual evidence?

• Distribute the corresponding, now completed, Stakeholder Descriptions and Evaluation handouts to each group that will be acting as listening groups during a presentation. (Each presenting group should have one listening group, and each group should act as a listening group at least once.)
• Remind non-participating groups that they should still be actively listening to the presentations.
• Orient stakeholder groups to their roles. Each member of the group will act as a different stakeholder. If there are more group members than stakeholders, students can work as teams or there can be duplicate stakeholders.
• Reminder: Their objective is to decide, from the stakeholder’s perspective, whether they should approve the recommended solution, offer revisions, or reject the solution. Reasoning must be provided for all decisions. 
• Presenting groups will be evaluated by the teacher using the Presentation Rubric and by the listening group with the Stakeholder Descriptions and Evaluations handout.
• Determine in advance whether the stakeholder groups will share their thoughts out loud with presenting groups, or whether the feedback will be written on the handouts.

• Invite volunteers to share their reflections, thoughts, and changes in thinking regarding the unit. To close, ask students to share actions or behaviors they feel would minimize human impacts on animal migration. 

• Now that the unit is over, prepare your class to execute further action to continue student momentum toward helping end the negative impacts of humans on animal migration and extend the impacts of their project work into the local or global community.
• Identify local migratory organisms. Create a backyard “pit stop” for the most vulnerable—such as a bat box or specific native flowering plants.
• Author a class letter to Congress, local government, or a local business to encourage an animal migration solution (e.g., building a wildlife crossing bridge). Students can submit copies of their maps and presentations as evidence.
• Download the Animal Tracker app or eBird app and follow and add to scientific knowledge about migrating animals through student citizen science field work.