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Contents
1.  What you can do
2.  Water
3.  Ecology
4.  Amphibians
5.  Environmental Issues
6.  Keystone species
7.  Get Wet!-
     Field Study Ideas

8.  The Zoo Experience
9.  Frogs & Friends
10. Case Studies
11. Resources
12. Glossary

On This Page...

-Organizations You Might Wish to Contact
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Additional Information -Sources to Check
-
Where to Look for Special Materials
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Some References
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About Amphibians
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Environmental Issues and Creating Action
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Periodicals
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Audio-Visual Resources
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Computer Resources
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For Younger Students

RESOURCES

This section includes references and information sources for educators and students, lists organizations that have a particular interest in wetlands, water resources and/or amphibians and it suggests sources for difficult-to-obtain materials required for some of the exercises (e.g. where to find snails, sodium sulphate, and so on).

ORGANIZATIONS YOU MIGHT WISH TO CONTACT:

Adopt-A-Pond Program,
Toronto Zoo,
361A Old Finch Ave.,
Scarborough, ON M1B 5K7

Frogwatch-Ontario - see Unit 5: Environmental Issues

Canadian Amphibian/Reptile Conservation Society,
9 Mississauga Road North,
Mississauga, ON L5H 2H5

Canadian Nature Federation,
453 Sussex Drive,
Ottawa, ON K1N 6Z4
(613) 238-6154

Canadian Wildlife Federation,
2740 Queensview Drive,
Ottawa, ON K2B 1A2
(613) 725-2191
Sponsor "Canadian Wildlife Week" each spring and initiated "Habitat 2000" program to support the development or improvement of suitable wildlife habitat in communities across Canada. Publish "WILD - Canadian Wildlife Magazine for Kids".

Canadian Wildlife Service,
c/o Environment Canada,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0H3
(819) 997-1301

Conservation Authorities
see listings in the Blue Pages of the phone book.

Conservation Council of Ontario,
506-480 College Street,
Toronto, ON M6G 1A5
(416)969-9637

Ducks Unlimited Canada (Head Office),
P.O. Box 1160,
Stonewall, MB R0C 2Z0
1-800-665-DUCK

Regional Offices for Ducks Unlimited Canada:
:: 1255 Commissioners Rd. West,
Suite 225, London, ON N6K 3N5
(519)473-4421
:: Unit #10,
240 Bayview Drive,
Barrie, ON L4N 4Y8
(705)726-3825
:: 712 The Kingsway,
Peterborough, ON K9J 6W6
(705)748-5447
:: R.R. #3,
Kingston, ON K7L 4V2
(613)389-0418

Ducks Unlimited has been involved in wetland conservation for fifty years. They sponsor educational programs but also provide financial support for wetland restoration and conservation on private and public lands.

Environment Canada-Ontario Region,
4905 Dufferin Street,
Downsview, ON
(416)739-4994
World Wide Web, Environment Canada's Greenlane:
http://www.ec.gc.ca
Contact for information about the Great Lakes and surrounding wetlands. Produce many valuable Fact Sheets including "Amphibians and Reptiles in Great Lakes Wetlands: Threats and Conservation" and "Sustaining Wetlands in the Great Lakes Basin". See also "Frog Surveys". Produce the "State of the Environment Report" annually - available on disk and in hard copy.

Federation of Ontario Naturalists,
355 Lesmill Road,
Don Mills, ON M3B 2W8
(416) 444-8419
The F.O.N. has several kits containing lesson plans, fact sheets, posters, booklets and other materials on related topics: "Acid Deposition Education Kit" "The Great Lakes Education Kit" and "Why Wetlands?" (Revised, 1994). Their magazine, "Seasons" carries relevant articles.

"Frog Surveys" Canadian Wildlife Service,
Environment Canada,
Canada Centre for Inland Waters,
867 Lakeshore Rd.,
P.O. Box 5050,
Burlington, ON L7R 4A6
(905) 336-4968
Contact for information about "Backyard Frog Surveys" and "Amphibian Road Call Counts". Produce a newsletter, "The Ontario Chorus", for volunteers participating in the amphibian monitoring programs in Ontario.

The Great Lakes Science Advisory Board.
Directory of Great Lakes Educational Material (1987; reprinted 1989).
Out-of-date but many of the references are still valuable. Available from: Information Services, International Joint Commission, Great Lakes Regional Office, 100 Ouellette Ave., 8th Floor, Windsor, ON N9A 6T3

Marsh Monitoring Program,
c/o Long Point Bird Observatory,
P.O. Box 160,
Port Rowan, ON N0E 1MO
(519) 586-3531

Ministry of Natural Resources (Ontario),
Head Office,
P.O. Box 7000,
300 Water Street,
Peterborough, ON K9J 8M5
(local offices can be found in the Blue Pages of the phone book)

Nature Conservancy of Canada,
110 Eglinton Ave. W., 4th Floor,
Toronto, ON MAR 2G5
(416) 469-1701

World Wildlife Fund ,
90 Eglinton Ave. E., Suite 504,
Toronto, ON M4P 2Z7
(416) 489-8800

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SOURCES TO CHECK:

:: Newspapers (local, national, and international) for articles about disappearing wetlands, and for information about local issues relating to wetlands and amphibians. Many newspapers, like the Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen, produce a weekly section on the environment that often deals with wetlands.

:: Nature and/or environmental magazines or journals are produced by many of the organizations listed earlier. Children's publications, like Chickadee, OWL, Ranger Rick and the Canadian Wildlife's new publication, WILD, often carry articles of interest.

:: Government agencies can provide resource suggestions and occasionally speakers or out-of-classroom learning opportunities.

:: Non-government agencies, like the Federation of Ontario Naturalists and the Canadian Nature Federation, can provide quality materials and provide suggestions for student actions to save the environment.

:: Members of COEO (Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario) can provide you with advice and assistance to help develop a quality outdoor learning experience for your class. COEO also publishes a "Catalogue of Programs and Personnel, Sites and Services in Outdoor Education in Ontario".

:: Don't forget to look in your school resource centre or community library.

:: And, of course, there is the Internet. Adopt-A-Pond and EcoNet are only a few of the many programs that may provide helpful information. Please check Adopt-A-Pond's site for up-to-date links to a wide range of excellent websites with relating to wetlands, amphibians, and related environmental subjects.

WHERE TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL MATERIALS:

:: The Green Brick Road, c/o 8 Dumas Court, Don Mills, ON M3A 2N2. (416) 465-1597 Established in 1990 this is an organization of educators and students working for environmental change. Offer excellent resource materials and now have a storefront research library (Danforth St., Toronto)

:: Science City, 50 Bloor St. W. Toronto and other locations. (416) 968-2627 Scientific and educational books, toys and speciality items.

:: Snails, guppies, and submergent vegetation can be purchased at a pet store or water garden centre. Many garden centres carry materials for water gardens.

:: Lawn fertilizer, bean seeds and/or plants and can be purchased at garden centres as well as some hardware and grocery stores.

:: A large map of Ontario can be obtained from Ontario government offices. Contact ACCESS ONTARIO at 1-800-268-8758 for further information.

:: Sodium bicarbonate, hydrochloric acid, and sodium sulphate can be purchased from a scientific supply house such as:

Boreal Laboratories Ltd.
399 Vansickle Rd.
Toronto ON
(416) 515-1234

Fisher Scientific
1200 Dennison Rd.
Unionville ON
(905) 479-8700

:: Litmus paper, phenopthalien, methyl orange, and bromthymol blue can be purchased from a scientific supply house.

:: Prepared slides of micro-organisms can be obtained from Science City or a scientific supply house.

:: A water quality testing kit (Hach kit) can be purchased from many of the larger garden centres or directly from Fryston Canada Incorporated, 1515 Matheson Blvd., Suite B-10, Mississauga, ON L4W 2P5 (416) 629-4421 or 1-800-387-7503

:: Environmental Resource (teacher and community) kits: Terrene Institute
4 Herbert St. Alexandria, VA 22306 (705) 661-1582

SOME REFERENCES:

Investigating Aquatic Ecosystems (1987),
W.A. Andrews and S.J. McEwan, Prentice-Hall of Canada Ltd.
An Introduction to Aquatic Insects of North America (1978),
Richard Merritt and Kenneth Cummings, Eds. Kendell/Hunt Publishing. 441 pp. Good teacher reference containing large page-size detailed illustrations of insects.

About Amphibians:

Several of these guides are very broad in scope. Students need to become familiar with what species they should expect to find in their region and they should be reminded to check range maps to prevent misidentification.

Amphibians of North America: A Guide to Field Identification (1978).
Hobart M. Smith. Golden Press, New York.

The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles (1979).>
J. L. Behler and F.W. King, Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, New York. 719 pp.

Familiar Amphibians and Reptiles of Ontario. (1989).
R. Johnson. (Available from Bob Johnson, Toronto Zoo, 361 A Old Finch Ave., Scarborough, ON M1B 5K7. Cost: $11.00)

A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America
Robert Conant and J. T. Collins, Peterson Field Guide Series, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston. 429 pp

A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles.
Thomas F. Tyning, Stokes Nature Guide Series.

Introduction to Canadian Amphibians and Reptiles (1984).
F.R. Cooke, Canadian Museum of Nature (formerly, National Museum of Natural Sciences), Ottawa. 200 pp

A Natural History of Amphibians (1995).
R.C. Stebbins and N.W. Cohen, Prince University Press, New Jersey. 316 pp

Environmental Issues and Creating Action:

There are many excellent resources about environmental issues and it is best to check with a resource libarian or one of the agencies listed here for recent references.

The Urban Outback - Wetlands for Wildlife: A Guide to Wetland Restoration and Frog-friendly Backyards. (1995).
Heather Gosselin and Bob Johnson, Toronto Zoo, pp. 89+. A comprehensive guide for restoring wetlands and naturalizing your backyard.

Yes In My Back Yard A guide to rehabilitating streams. (1992).
Laurie Fretz. Conservation Council of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.

Restoring Nature's Place. (1996)
Jean-marc Daigle and Donna J. Havinga, pp 226 Ecological Outlook Consulting and OPA.

Periodicals:

Listed below are some of the more widely-available articles that relate to this manual. Other sources, such as difficult-to-obtain, professional journals, are not included here although educators may wish to direct more senior students to these resources in places like university, zoo, or museum libraries.

Losing Their Spots Michael Klasson, in Nature Canada, Winter, 1991.

Frogs in Trouble Kathryn Phillips, in International Wildlife, December, 1990.

What's Smaller than a Matchbox and Louder than a Speeding Plane? Alan Linn, in International Wildlife, May/June, 1987.

Audio-visual Resources:

From NFB, either on loan or sale; often available through your local library. Educators should note that these are all older films but they do provide some excellent closeup footage of life in a wetland:

Frogs, Snakes and Turtles
(27:50 mins, 1976, NFB # 106C 0176 169). Examines the life cycles and vital roles these animals play in the ecology of the pond, fields and forest. It stresses the fact that these often maligned creatures are being threatened by the loss of habitat, use of pesticides and other dangers of encroaching civilization

The Other World
(19:02 mins, 1976, NFB #106C 0176 001) Underwater photography and photo-microscopy are used to reveal the world beneath the waters surface. Shows the interrelationships of life from micro-organism to insect, mullosc, crustacean, fish, bird and mammals.

A World in Our Backyard: A Wetlands Educational and Stewardship Program
(24:00 mins, ISBN #1-56791-110-2) 16 min. teacher program featuring 3 educators in different kinds of schools using wetland areas in their curriculum. You'll see that wetlands are not just for the "outdoor gifted" teacher. A 7 minute student program featuring Bill Nye, the Science Guy, will share the wetland ecosystem with you. You will want to discover more about fabulous wetlands.

The Water's Edge: The Silent Explosion
(27:53 mins, 1976, NFB # 106C 0176 060) Shows the life of a pond through the seasons. The emergence of a dragonfly, and courtship and mating of leopard frogs are only two of the myriad of images captured by the camera.

World in a Marsh
(21:07, 1956, NFB #106C 0156 004) Yes, this classic is now 40 years old!!! But, it still does a good job of showing the intracacies of life in a marsh. A sandpiper treads warily on lily pads: a whirligig beetle stops in mid-dance; a muskrat glides swiftly into the darkness; a dragonfly emerges from its chrysallis; a frog and garter snake engage in mortal combat and two bullfrogs vie for the attention of a female.

TVOntario
Box 200, Station Q,
Toronto, ON M4T 2T1
(416) 484-2600
Has produced several series, such as "Habitat", that incorporate material about wetlands. Please contact them for their most recent catalogue.

Computer Resources:

Advances in computer technology, CD-Roms and the internet are moving at an astonishing rate. Check Adopt-A-Pond's Wetland Connections page for up-to-date links and information.

FOR YOUNGER STUDENTS:

Amazing World's Amazing Frogs and Toads,
Barry Clarke, Stoddart Publishing 1990
Extremely Weird Frogs,
Sarah Lovett, John Muir Publications, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1991
Frogs,
Bill Ivy, Grolier Inc., 1985
The FROG Alphabet Book,
Jerry Pallotta, Charlesburg Publishing, USA 1990
Frogs - Facts, Stories, Games,
Lucy Baker, Kids Can Press Ltd. Toronto, 1991
Look Closer - Pond Life,
Barbara Taylor, Stoddart Publishing, 1992
The Pond Book,
Karen & Neil Dawe, Somerville House Publishing, Toronto, 1990
Pond Life, A Close-up Look at the Natural World of a Pond,
Dorling Kindersley, Inc. New York, 1992.
Ponds and Rivers,
Steven Parker, Eyewitness Books, Stoddart Publishing 1988
Questions Kids Ask about Snakes and Frogs and their Relatives,
Jocelyn Smyth (ed.) Grolier Ltd., 1989.
Survival: Could You Be a Frog?
J. N. Wood, MacMillan Canada 1990.
Toad,
Adrienne Soutter-Perrot, My First Nature Book Series,
Creative Education Inc. 1993.
Wetlands,
Pamela Hickman, Federation of Ontario Naturalists, Kids Can Press Ltd. 1993.

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