Middle school students investigate the field of wildlife rehabilitation and explore reasons why wildlife gets sick or injured and learn about the people who help wildlife recover. The lesson teaches students that wildlife rehabilitation is a trained medical profession requiring special training, skills, and space to treat and care for wildlife.
Students role play to choose what they might do if they were to find a sick or injured wild animal. The lesson culminates with students creating a communications plan for social media that helps inform their community about the importance of taking sick or injured wildlife to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Students put their plan into “action” and evaluate its success. Some of the content from this lesson comes from PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.