UNC Wilmington offers a whale-sized lesson in ocean science
October 2015 | UNC@Work
UNC-Wilmington's custom-made whale inside the gymnasium at Penderlea Elementary School.
On an otherwise normal school day, twenty-five fifth graders sat inside the belly of a life-sized right whale, conveniently beached inside the gymnasium of Penderlea Elementary School.
“It’s like we got eaten!” shouted one student, peering up at the ceiling of the inflatable whale.
Along with five other classes that day, the fifth-graders were learning about marine debris, the trash that makes its way into the ocean and often winds up in the food chain of creatures like the right whale.
“How would you feel if you ate a plastic bag?” asked Emily Singleton, a marine biologist at UNC Wilmington, standing inside the snout of the whale and leading the day’s class.
“Bad!” one student volunteered. “Gross!” shouted another.
That’s how the whales feel, too.
And that’s why Singleton and her colleagues at UNCW MarineQuest program are visiting schools across eastern North Carolina, teaching kids to keep their trash out of waterways and away from the ocean. The Traveling Through Trash curriculum makes an impression thanks to the giant whale Singleton helped design and build. Made from heavy plastic sheeting and lots of very strong duct tape, the 56-foot mammal folds up neatly for the commute from Wilmington to surrounding school districts.
“Everything is to scale, and everything is to spec,” Singleton said, pointing out the distinctive coloring and fin-shape on the inflatable model. “This is such a tangible thing to show students, and we wanted it to be realistic.”
The message to each class, from kindergarten up through eighth grade, is that individual actions matter in keeping the oceans safe and clean. Even those who live a long way from the shore can have a big impact.
“Every creek, every ditch, every river eventually winds up at the ocean,” Singleton said. “We talk about debris you can see and feel, like water bottles, and stuff you can’t, like toxins.”
The program, funded by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also gives students a chance to learn some biology basics. They spend time chasing each other across the gym, impersonating predators and prey, to understand how marine debris like microplastic can end up even in the smallest plankton, which helps feed the sharks and fish — and eventually the people — on up the food chain.
The students also ask plenty of questions. In one session, those queries ranged from, “Do whales eat people?” (No) to “How many animals are in the ocean?” (We really have no idea.)
Singleton likes fielding questions that don’t have an answer. Students are often surprised to find out that science is incomplete, she said, and that there’s still a lot to discover.
“There’s so much we don’t know, and that always amazes kids,” she said. “If they’re interested in this, if it just blows their minds, they could grow up to discover basic science that might be completely new. And that’s really exciting.”
In the coming months, the UNC Wilmington program will visit more than 7,500 students in rural elementary and middle schools within a two-hour drive of campus.