Taken from the Exploratorium snack:
Lay the 3 identical magnets in a triangle under the support.
Hang the hole magnet so it is suspended between these 3 magnets, and is attracted to them, but does not touch them.
Gently swing the suspended magnet so that it moves irratically between the other 3 magnets.
Adjust the height and position of the suspended magnet, and the positions of the other 2 magnets until you get best results - the suspended magnet can swing for quite a while before it finds a stable position.
Try doing with a really long string from the ceiling.
Show all the students the different cards and demonstrate and practice the noise for each one.
Whale sounds can be found online, though note that often the sounds are played faster so that we can hear them. This site indicates how much the sound is changed, including http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/psb/acoustics/sounds.html. The humpback and blue whale are the classic whale sounds.
Play one round with 3 students where all students are blue whales. They can hear each other's noises and respond to each other.
Then distribute all cards, and ask blue whales to find each other, with all the other noises going on - it is much harder.
This is what whales face with the increased noise pollution from man, along with the noise pollution already there from other natural phenomena in their environment.
Game physically worked with Ks, but message lost on them. Fine with older grades.
How whales walked into the sea by Faith McNulty
Big Blue Whale by Nicola Davies
What are these bones? Who do they belong to? They are big! They are whale bones. (show blue whale vertebrae, grey adn right whale ribs and ear, sperm whale tooth, baleen)
If the individual bones are this big, how big is a whale?
Whales are bigger than us. Show the relative sizes of a person and an orca.
Some whales are very big. The museum I come from has a skeleton of a blue whale.
Is it bigger than us? Is it bigger than an elephant? Is it bigger than a dinosaur? It is the biggest animal that ever lived. (Show relative sizes of these animals).
Touch these bones. Are they heavy? What do they feel like? What do they smell like? (Show many bones that can be handled).
Where are your bones? Can you find your skull, vertebrae, teeth, ribs (same bones as the animal bones they are touching and seeing).
Show flipper X-ray and look at their own hand.
These bones have been cut so you can make prints with them.
How do you think whales talk?
Listen to blue whale song.
What are they saying?
Can you sing their song?
You have learned a lot about the blue whale and other whales: how big it is, what it's bones inside are like, and how it talks.
Read Big Blue Whale.
This lesson uses whale bones from a museum collection.
See evolution binder for untested lesson plans for grades 1-3.
Background noises in recording distracting for Ks. OK for older grades.
South Pacific is probably the best one to use first.
Directions from the Exploratorium procedure modified slightly:
Students can touch the eye before starting (then they should wash hands before doing another activity).
Cut off the fat. This protects the eye.
Make a small nick in the sclera to let some vitreous humour come out, then cut the eye in half so the front is separated from the back.
Here is the pupil, a hole - you can look through it now. Pull out the iris (black in cows).
The sclera is really tough - it protects the front of the eye - hear the layers with the blade.
Take out the lens.
If it is intact, put it on newsprint to see it magnify the words.
(The lens is good for the students to touch).
[Maybe take a break and add other lens activities in here.]
Look at the back of the eye.
Shiny tapetum in the back of the eye. Cow's are awake at night.
The pink retina converges at the blind spot.
The optic nerve emerges at the back of the blind spot.