Marine Mammal Lab

Your Experience

In this program, the book The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is used to explore fact and fiction about whales. Students use microscopes to look at plankton and krill as they learn about the diets of marine mammals, sort mammal and non-mammal artifacts, listen to the sounds of whales, and observe fascinating whale “hitchhikers.” Students learn the characteristics of mammals. They observe, identify, and then sort a variety of animal artifacts and replicas into mammal and non-mammal categories. The mammals are then sorted further into land (terrestrial) and marine mammal categories. Students learn about life cycles, discovering that some plankton are larval forms of animals they know, such as sea stars, lobsters, and snails. Students also learn about the communication and echolocation abilities of whales, using tuning forks and hydrophones to experiment with sound waves and sound production, and viewing video and sound clips of whales.