WOODLAND — Elementary students in Woodland learned about Pacific gray whales, one of the species native to the Pacific Northwest, with classroom lessons, hands-on activities, and experiments taught by Field Educator Kelly McKenzie from the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Ore.
McKenzie taught first-graders about the differences between mammals and fish; the unique characteristics of the Pacific gray whale in comparison with other whales; and the similarities humans share with other mammals like whales. After the lesson, students were to examine whale bones including ribs and vertebrae, as well as touch and feel a piece of baleen, the filter-feeding system some whales have in their mouths instead of teeth.
After examining bones and baleen in small groups, students engaged in an experiment to experience first-hand how a whale’s fat, called “blubber,” insulates the giant creatures against extreme cold temperatures. McKenzie had students put their bare arms in a cooler with ice water, roughly the same temperature as many of the oceans where whales live, for 10 seconds. Then, students put their arms back into the water, but this time in bags filled with vegetable shortening, which simulated how blubber keeps whales warm. Students were surprised by how effective fat is as an insulator against cold.
