Activity 3 A Whale of a Scale lesson...

2008 SMILE Summer Teacher Workshop High School Club Activities A Whale of a Scale

A Whale of a Scale: Determining the Size of Megafauna Material adapted from: PBS Teachers “Creatures of the Deep: Whale Warning” http://www.pbs.org/safarchive/4_class/45_pguides/pguide_604/4564_whale.html Aquatic Project Wild, Council for Environmental Education 1992, p26-29 The Great Whales, Vicki Osis, Oregon State University 2005, p70-71 Factsheets taken from: American Cetacean Society www.acsonline.org Introduction: One of the ways in which scientists are gaining more perspective in aquatic issues is through the use of math and statistics. Some remarkable insights are gained if we look at the world in numerical ways. Whales are creatures of extraordinary sizes, and are often difficult to visualize such scale in relation to our own size. In this activity, students will use math and scale to gain a greater appreciation of the variety of sizes of megafauna, specifically the great whales. Objectives: Students will:

• Use computational, graphing and measuring techniques to draw or sculpture life size replicas of whales on school grounds

• Be able to describe the sizes of different great whale species compared to both their own body size and everyday objects

• Develop an appreciation for charismatic megafauna Materials: (Materials in bold are provided by SMILE) Flipchart/butcher Paper Markers/pencils Sidewalk Chalk Measuring devices (meter sticks/yardsticks/tape measures) Twine, 200-300’(Optional) Tent Stakes (Optional) Carpenter’s Chalkline (Optional) Materials provided are enough to support 20 students Handouts/Overheads: Student Grid Paper (One inch square) American Cetacean Society Factsheets (6 different whale species) Whale Diagrams Construct-a-Whale Handout (taken from Aquatic Project Wild)


Procedure: 1. Explain the terms megafauna and cetacean. Brainstorm with the class megafauna they are familiar with, this could include present types such rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo or extinct species such as dodo, dinosaur and mammoth. Also include the cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoise). Have the students estimate the size of these creatures and play some short videos of cetaceans. 2. Divide the students into 6 teams and assign one whale species to each team using the table below. Provide each team with a factsheet for their species.

Species Length (ft) Weight (tons) HUMPBACK WHALE 50 35

SPERM WHALE 55 40 FIN WHALE 70 60

GRAY WHALE 45 35 RIGHT WHALE 50 50 BLUE WHALE 100 100

(1 ton = 2000 lb, approximately the weight of a small car) NB: These typical lengths and weights for mature whales may be different from information in reference books. This is a reflection of how knowledge of great whales and other cetacea continues to grow through scientific investigation. 3. Provide the students with the one-inch grid paper. Using the whale diagrams, have them cut out their species of whale. Ask them to draw an outline of this cut out on the grid paper. This will be their master drawing. 4. Now have each team make a much larger grid on a sheet of flipchart/butcher paper. The squares on this grid should be 4 inches on each side (so the new image will become 4 times bigger than the master drawing). Ask the students to transfer their smaller whale drawing to the larger grid, similarly to the hand picture in figure 1 below. Fig 1 (taken from Aquatic Project Wild)


They can also use the numbers on the smaller grid to help transfer the individual sections such as in figure 2. Fig 2 (taken from Aquatic Project Wild)

5. Next, take the students outside to a playground, parking lot or sports field and have the teams bring their master drawings. Inform the students they will use the same method as before to draw the whales on school grounds. Here, the squares will be 10ft on each side! To do this they can simply size up the master drawing, for example on the master drawing the blue whale will measure 10 inches (10 squares) long, which will equate to 100ft outdoors as 10 squares on the ground will measure 100ft (actual size). Have plenty of measuring devices available for students to be able to achieve this. 6. Transferring the whale image from the master drawing to the 10ft square grid may be made easier by the following:

• Using 2-3 long pieces of twine/carpenters chalkline with marks every 10ft (such as knots, ribbons tied on or marker spots at 10ft intervals)

• Making sure to use the numbers on the master and have the same marked on the squares on the school ground, as per figure 3.

• The school ground grid does not have to be exactly square, so be sure to prevent this part of the process from becoming to burdensome for the students.


Figure 3 (taken from Aquatic Project Wild)

7. Once the drawings are finished, ask each team to prepare a quick presentation for their whale species using the fact sheet. Have the students visit each drawing and listen to each presentation. At each stop let the students investigate comparisons between their own size and whale proportions, for example by determining how many students can fit inside each whale, can encircle the drawing, etc. Use objects/descriptions to create analogies for proportions of different whale parts. Examples include:

• Humpback Whale o As long as a school bus o Can blow bubbles as big as a pizza

• Sperm Whale o Eat giant squid, but not without the squid putting up a fight first.

Scientists have discovered this from finding sperm whales with sucker mark scars as big as dinner plates on them.

o Have the largest brain of any animal on Earth, weighing 20 lb, 7 times larger than the human brain

• Fin Whale

o One of the fastest whales, known to swim up to 35 mph, 7 times faster than the fastest human swimmer

• Gray Whale

o Has the longest known migration route of any whale, a 12,000 mile round trip between the Artic Ocean and Mexico, equivalent of Portland to London and back!

• Right Whale

o Eyes are the size of softballs!

• Blue Whale o Heart is the size of a VW Bug, but only beats about 6 times a minute


o Most students could crawl through one of their major arteries o Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale o A single breath could inflate 2000 balloons o Eats enough food in one day to fill 64,000 cereal bowls o Loudest as well as largest animal – can reach 188 dB, 3 times louder

than a human can shout Extensions: 1. Draw the actual size outline of an African elephant or brachiosaurus among the whales for more size comparison 2. Have the students research the current status of all the great whale species using such websites as:

• Ocean Alliance: http://www.oceanalliance.org/ • Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society: http://www.wdcs.org/ • American Cetacean Society: http://www.acsonline.org/

3. Start a school project to construct a life-size whale out of heavyweight plastic, inflated by fans. Use the construct-a-whale handout supplied with this activity for help. 4. Play the Humpback Whale migration game from Vicki Osis’ Book: The Great Whales (p70-77) 5. Use the TOPP (Tagging Of Pacific Predators) Website to help students discover how feeding/breeding grounds and migration patterns of marine predators are monitored http://topp.org/ Vocabulary: Cetacean An order of marine mammals that comprises whales, dolphins and porpoises. These have a streamlined hairless body, no hind limbs, a horizontal tail fin, and a blowhole on the top of the head for breathing. Megafauna The large mammals of a particular region, habitat or geological period. Scale

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A Whale of a Scale: Whale Diagrams (NB Measurements on these diagrams are in metric)

Humpback Whale

Sperm Whale

Fin Whale

Gray Whale

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Activity 3 A Whale of a Scale lesson...

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