Pathfinder

= =  ** Pathfinder topic: Bottlenose Dolphins  **

Introduction:
Bottlenose Dolphins are smart, intriguing animals that could be used in a science curriculum. I remember learning about them in 3rd grade and I was completely fascinated. The purpose of my pathfinder is to help serve as a guide for students and teachers to discover fun, factual information about Bottlenose Dolphins. My intended audience is for children in grades K-5.

Key Terms:
Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Salt Water, Mammal, Tursiops Truncatus, Delphinidae, Carnivore, Ocean Animal, Cetacea, Odontoceti, Marine Biology, Education

Search Strategies:
I searched a few of the common search engines such as Yahoo! and Google. Even after entering the Boolean operator NOT before the words "football" and "Miami," I still got a ton of Miami Dolphins Football websites. I then turned my search to the more kid-friendly search engines since my target audience is for students in third-fifth grades. Below are my most successful searches. A few websites showed up in several various search engine results.
 * Yahoo! Kids-formerly known as Yahooligan ([])
 * Searched: Dolphins AND Interactive Learning, Dolphins AND Children, Dolphins AND Education
 * Ask Jeeves for Kids ([])
 * Searched: Dolphins, Bottle-Nosed Dolphins NOT Miami, Dolphins AND Interactive Learning
 * Awesome Library ([])
 * Searched: Marine Mammals AND Dolphins, Games AND Dolphins

Online Resources:

 * 1) [] This is an interactive website where children can click around to find out general information, fun facts and research that is currently going on at The Dolphin Institute.
 * 2) [] This is an interesting website that follows a 6 week study that Dan Odell conducted on bottlenose dolphins that live in the wild. You can follow the adventure in a chapter by chapter line up.
 * 3) [] This website contains a wealth of information about bottlenose dolphins and it is from the world renowned SeaWorld Adventure Parks website. This is the main page about dolphins, but if students explore other areas of the website, there are a lot of other fun features they can discover.
 * 4) [] This website is a one-stop-shop for quick information about bottlenose dolphins. It includes facts, maps, photo galleries and an audio clip of dolphins "talking."
 * 5) [] This website contains several activities related to dolphins. Children can choose to take quizzes, find coloring sheets, complete puzzles or find a dolphin craft to make at home or school.
 * 6) [] This interactive website can help engage children to the ideas of helping these precious animals. It includes information about helping marine mammals, adopting a dolphin and information about dolphin camp. It also includes fun facts, games and coloring activities for children to partake in.

Print Resources:

 * 1) Hatkoff, J., Hatkoff, C., Hatkoff, I. (2009). //Winter's Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again//. New York: Scholastic, Inc. This book documents the rehabilitation journey of a dolphin named Winter who lost her tail because of a crab trap injury. The Clearwater Marin Aquarium in Florida took her under their wing and with an idea from a prosthetics company, Winter had a prosthetic tail made. This is a real story about survival and a dolphin that is exceling despite the hardship she has experienced.
 * 2) Morris, R.A., Funai, M. (1983//). Dolphin: I Can Read Book Series: Level 3//. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. This book depicts dolphins' lives from birth to their first six months. It states facts about their nutrition habits early in life and how they survive the wild ocean.
 * 3) Wexo, J.B. (2003//). Dolphins and Porpoises (Zoobooks//). Illinois: Wildlife Education, Ltd. This hardcover book contains a wealth on information about dolphins covered in 24 pages. Detailed pictures and diagrams to help students really grasp the concepts covered in the text.
 * 4) Osborne, M. (2003//). Dolphins and Sharks: Magic Tree House Research Guide//. New York: Scholastic, Inc. A great guide to answer children's unique questions about dolphins.
 * 5) Eckart, E. (2003//). Bottlenose Dolphin//. New York: Rosen Book Works, Inc. Any easy read for children ages 4-8 containing factual information about bottlenose dolphins. Supplemental materials, including an AR quiz is available for this text from Scholastic.