Looking to bring marine science into your classroom?
Working on a high school assignment?
Have a budding marine scientist at home?
Interested in lifelong learning?
Whales spend the vast majority of their time underwater and can move great distances in short periods of time.
How do we know where they go, and why?
Professor Kate Stafford talks about how she listens to blue whales in this short video module for teaching young learners about wildlife science.
Many more videos, activities, and virtual field trips can be found on the Blue Whale Education Modules page.
Clara Bird is a graduate student at the Marine Mammal Institute. Her current research is focused on using drones to study how gray whale behavior varies across space, time, and individuals off the coast of Oregon. She has also done work with the Duke University Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Lab using drones to study Adelie penguins, humpback whales, and minke whales along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.
MMI graduate student Kaimyn O'Neill provided the scientific expertise for an Oregon Coast STEM Hub lesson plan, which asks, Are there enough individuals of reproductive age in the Cook Inlet beluga whale population to promote recovery without human intervention?
Access the lesson plan, activities, and materials on the searchable Oregon Sea Grant K–12 Curriculum website.
MMI graduate student Karen Lohman provided the scientific expertise for an Oregon Coast STEM Hub lesson plan, which asks, How does population genetics inform marine policy and management?
Access the lesson plan, activities, and materials on the searchable Oregon Sea Grant K–12 Curriculum website.
Elizabeth Daly provided the scientific expertise for an Oregon Coast STEM Hub lesson plan, which asks, How is the decreasing population of Southern Resident killer whales connected to prey selection and availability?
Access the lesson plan, activities, and materials on the searchable Oregon Sea Grant K–12 Curriculum website.
By Vicki Osis, Susan Leach Snyder, Rachel Gross, Bill Hastie, Beth Broadhurst
Produced by the OSU Marine Mammal Institute, 2008
This lesson book uses the appeal of whales to help teach science and math. Topics include an introduction to whales, whale habitats, exploitation of whales, current threats to whales, whale investigations, and whale research. The book is available for free download, or you may purchase a printed copy for $21. To order a printed copy, please send a check made payable to Oregon State University to Marine Mammal Institute, 2030 SE Marine Science Dr., Newport OR 97365.
