Goals:
Resources:
3. English-Metric Conversion Chart found at: http://www.dedolanet.com/conversion.html
Teacher Background:
All aspects of teacher background will be found by the resources that are mentioned above.
Time: Considering giving the students about a half of a hour worth of class time to read this lesson should take two hours to complete.
Procedure:
Step 1- Give one half of the classroom one of the articles and the other half of the class the other article. Instruct the class that they must finish the article by the end of the half-hour.
Step 2- Have the students write down important information that they read about in the articles. The important information should be covered by answering the following questions. How the scientists went about studying the whales? How each type of whale began to become less disperse and then how each type of whale grew in population? Where is each type of whale located? What physical characteristics does each type of whale have? Where and when does each type of whale migrate? What role if any did humans have in the growing populations of each type of whale?
Step 3- The class should then switch articles and take the other article home for homework and do the same as in step 2.
Step 4- The students then should get into groups of three or four. In these groups the students should be given a poster size piece of paper in which they are going to create a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences of the gray and blue whales according to the information that they have gathered.
Step 5- Students then will get up in front of the class and present their Venn diagram to the class.
Step 6- The teacher should then hang the students work up in the room.
Step 7- Students then will work on making conversions between the English and metric system pertaining to information about the blue and gray whales.
Assessment:
Students will be given full credit if they have a lot of information on their Venn diagram and no credit if they have limited information on their Venn diagram. Students will be assessed on their math problems by the following rubrics.
3 points= Student has shown all of the work in solving the problem.
2 points= Student has shown some of the work in solving the problem.
1 points= Student has not shown all of the work in solving the problem.
4 points= Student has 90% or more of the problems correct.
3 points= Student has 80% or more of the problems correct.
2 points= Student has 70% or more of the problems correct.
1 point= Student has less than 70% of the problems done correctly.
Curricular Strands and Major Concepts:
Language Arts- Reading the two articles from the National Geographic. Students also will be comparing and contrasting the two different types of whales by doing a Venn diagram. Students will also be using verbal communication skills when presenting their Venn diagram.
Math- Students will be learning about the metric system and also about doing conversions between the English and the metric system.
Possible Extensions:
1. Students could make a book about the comeback of both species of whale including what role humans had in the comeback of both whales.
2. Students could write to an organization inquiring about how they could help preserve the whales.
*Students will need their conversion sheet for this activity.
**Students also must show all of their work for full credit.
1. The gray whale makes a 10,000 mile round trip in the space of 8 months.
A. How many kilometers is this trip?
B. How many meters is this trip?
C. How many kilometers does the whale travel per month?
D. How many kilometers per hour does the whale travel, considering each month is 30 days?
2. The gray whale is 50 feet long and weighs 35 tons.
A. How many meters long is the gray whale?
B. How many millimeters long is the gray whale?
C. How much does the gray whale weigh in kilograms?
D. How much does the gray whale weigh in grams?
3. The blue whale is 110 feet long and weighs 190 tons.
A. How much does the blue whale weigh in ounces?
B. How much does the blue whale weigh in grams?
C. How much does the blue whale weigh in kilograms?
D. How long is the blue whale in meters?
E. How long is the blue whale in kilometers?
F. How long is the blue whale in centimeters?
4. The blue whale eats 4 tons of krill a day? (remember a ton
equals 2000 pounds)
A. How much krill does the blue whale eat in kilograms?
B. How much krill does the blue whale eat in grams?
C. How much krill does the blue whale eat in ounces?
5. Keep track of how much food you eat tomorrow and then calculate how many days it would take you to eat as much as a blue whale does in one day.
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