The oldest students joined me in the lab first to explore if size affects how much heat you lose. We compared 'mice' and 'whales' during our experiment and were surprised to find the smaller animals lose heat faster because of surface area.
The Kindergarten to Grade 2 students started their exploration of whales by looking at porpoise and dolphin teeth, as well as baleen from a number of different whale species. Then they conducted an experiment testing teeth vs. baleen at catching plankton and fish. The group concluded that teeth were only good at catching fish but the baleen could collect both. The final activity was to make a humpback whale food chain craft.
The Grade 3 to 5 group were a little grossed out by their experiment using olives, shortening and staples to test whale buoyancy. They were troopers through and I think they enjoyed the lab despite all the 'ewwws'. Now they will always think of whales when they see an olive!
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