Sharks can get anyone excited regardless of a person’s age, but they especially thrilled Flower Hill Primary School first graders who participated in an “amazing” virtual field trip with the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, Connecticut.
The youngsters are students in classes taught by Erika Brignati, Doreen Ellis, Megan Scannevin and Alexandra Franco
Billed as “Shark Safari,” the 50 minute program featured a pair of aquarium educators who made an interesting presentation and answered an endless series of questions that students fired at the duo. The first graders watched live as sand tiger sharks swam in their tanks in Connecticut.
“Sharks have a variety of superb adaptations that have allowed them to survive for millions of years,” according to an overview of the program. “Students will examine the teeth and jaws of different species of sharks and learn how their structures and senses help them find a variety of prey in different ocean habitats. The youngsters will get an up-close look at the different species of sharks we have at the aquarium and create a shark of their own that has the structures it needs to survive.”
Naturally, the virtual nature of the field trip necessitated many modifications to the program, but the result was the same. Students compared and contrasted different types of sharks and used what they learned in an earlier science unit on “animals and survival” to make sense of the very long lifespan of sharks, which are capable of living for hundreds of years.
“The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to educate visitors about – and to create stewards for – Long Island Sound and the ocean beyond,” according to the organization’s website. “It accomplishes this by allowing visitors to get close to more than 300 species native to the Sound and its watershed, including sharks, seals, sea turtles, river otters and jellyfish.”
Learn more at about the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk by visiting www.maritimeaquarium.org.