Tales and Truths

The wolf—this animal has left quite a paw print on global culture! For thousands of years, different cultures have spoken and written about its perceived and real attributes.

This lesson will provide an opportunity for students to explore facts and fables of this storied animal. By conducting research and analyzing data, students should develop a better understanding of wolves and the sometimes turbulent issues that surround them.

• Standard 6: “How culture and experience influence people’s perceptions of places and regions”
• Standard 14: “How human actions modify the physical environment”
• Standard 15: “How physical systems affect human systems”

• May 1998 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC article “Return of the Gray Wolf”
• poster materials
• computer with Internet access
• encyclopedias, magazines, or books that discuss wolves

Students will examine their own beliefs about wolves, compare and contrast facts and popular perceptions (and misconceptions) about wolves, suggest possible reasons for differences between perceptions and facts, and present their research.

1. Conduct a class discussion about wolves. Encourage students to share their own positive and negative views as well as their sense of historical views of wolves. Record student perceptions on a chalkboard or overhead transparency. Ask students to speculate about the reasons for these perceptions.
2. Distribute copies of the May 1998 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC “Return of the Gray Wolf” and other research materials on wolves. Encourage students to visit the Geoguide/wolves Web site, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geoguide/wolves.

1. Show your students how to chart regions of overlap and difference between two data sets in a Venn diagram: Draw two overlapping ovals for the class. In the example below, one oval is for historical perceptions of wolves, the other for contemporary perceptions. Where a perception falls in both categories, it should be written in the center. Where a perception was widely held only in the past or at present, but not both, it should be written in the remainder of the appropriate oval. Have students come to the board to help complete the diagram, using perceptions from the list your class created earlier.
   
   Sample template for a Venn diagram:
   
   

   Shifting perspectives on wolves
   Historical perceptions	Contemporary perceptions

   
   
   
2. Divide the class into four groups. Assign one of the following diagram topics to each group:
   • Wolf travels through time: historical distribution versus contemporary distribution
   • Political geography of wolves: human territories versus wolf territories
   • Food chain collision: wolf prey versus human prey
   • Impacts on human economic systems: wolf contributions versus wolf costs
3. Ask the student teams to complete their diagrams.

Ask each group to present and explain its diagram to the class.

• group diagrams
• group presentations
• discussion participation

Ask students to develop a hallway display or Web site that focuses on the facts and fiction surrounding wolves.

Ask students to look for and sketch wolf tracks or other animal tracks in their communities. If students cannot find animal tracks, ask them to think why not.