The Transformation of Students Into Sharks: a Journey Through the Sensory Systems And

The Transformation of Students into Sharks: A Journey Through the Sensory Systems and Behaviors of Sharks

Lesson Plan on elasmobranch behavioral responses: Includes data collection, using mathematics and critical thinking

By: Craig O’Connell

A. State Standards Addressed a. Standard 6.1: The student will demonstrate an understanding of technological design and scientific inquiry, including process skills, mathematical thinking, controlled investigative design and analysis, and problem solving. i. Indicator 6-1.2: Differentiate between observation and inference during the analysis and interpretation of data. ii. Indicator 6-1.4: Use a technological design process to plan and produce a solution to a problem or a product (including identifying a problem, designing a solution or a product, implementing a design, and evaluating the solution or the product). iii. Indicator 6-1.5. Use appropriate safety procedures when conducting investigations b. Standard 6.3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of structures, processes, and responses of animals that allow them to survive and reproduce. i. Indicator 6-3.1: Summarize the basic functions of the structures of animals that allow them to defend themselves, to move, and to obtain resources. ii. Indicator 6-3.4: Explain how environmental stimuli cause physical responses in animals (including shedding, blinking, shivering, sweating, panting, and food gathering). iii. Indicator 6-3.5: Illustrate animals behavioral responses (including hibernation, migration, defense, and courtship) to environmental stimuli. iv. Indicator 6-3.6: Summarize how the internal stimuli (including hunger, thirst, and sleep) of animals ensure their survival. v. Indicator 6-3.7: Compare learned to inherited behaviors in animals.

B. Objectives a. Students will learn about the various senses of elasmobranchs and how elasmobranch senses are both similar and different to ours. b. Students will behave as if they were sharks, using metal detectors to find prey items and to navigate (with blindfolds). c. Students will learn how scientists conduct research. d. Students will learn how to make bar graphs. e. Students will observe a live shark (Banded Cat Shark) and do some hands on experiments. f. Students will observe a live shark egg (Banded Cat Shark) to help understand different methods of development. g. Students will watch a quick movie and learn about environmental problems and what scientists are doing to help save sharks and the Earth. h. Students will actually make bar graphs from experiments that were conducted in the Bahamas on live sharks.

C. Lesson Plan a. Engage. The lesson will begin with each student coming up to the front of the room to touch a neonate Banded Cat Shark and observe a Banded Cat Shark egg. The students will be asked to pay close attention to various characteristics of the shark and the egg. This will then be followed by a quick PowerPoint presentation. The PowerPoint presentation will introduce the students to the various shark senses: gustatory, tactile, olfactory, visual, auditory, and electroreception. Each sense will be described in detail and will contain either video or photo demonstrations. Also, students will learn about different types of development and how each type is present in sharks: viviparous, oviparous, ovoviviparous. Once these types of development are presented, students will be asked which type of development the shark egg represents.

b. Explore. After the lecture the instructor will break the class into four different groups. Prior to this exercise, some previous preparation is needed (see below). Each group is going to be given a task: (1) find prey items or (2) navigate from one location to the next. The twist to this exercise is that the students must find prey items or navigate with a blindfold on and must use a metal detector. Since the students are learning about sharks, this exercise is beneficial because the students will be behaving exactly like sharks. The metal detector is supposed to be the shark’s head, which contains all the electrosensory pores. Students will understand how acute the electro-sense of sharks truly is and both how and why it is used. Steps: 1) Set up 4 different areas. Two of the areas will be for the prey exercise, while the other two will be for the navigation exercise (this all depends on how many groups you make and how many metal detectors you have). For the prey exercise, place candy on top of two pennies (tape it all together). Make a starting point and then take one step and place a prey item on the ground. From that spot, take one more full step and place another prey item. Continue to do this for a few more pieces. Now do the same thing for the navigation exercise, but remove the candy. Note: make it challenging and don’t just put the pennies in a straight line. You want to set it up so once the students find one prey item or navigation point, all they have to do is swing the detector in a circle to find the next prey item or point. 2) Set up your metal detector (we use Bounty Hunger Junior Metal Detectors since they are efficient and cheap). Bring your students outside and blindfold one student in each group. 3) Have the student stand at the starting line and the remaining students stand and create a boundary around the area so the blindfolded student does not wind up in another country. 4) Tell the students with a sweeping motion, to scan the area and when they find their first item or location, stand there and scan again to find the next. Tell them to continue till their group members notify the student that they reached the end. c) Explain. At the end, bring the students back into the classroom and hopefully they had a bit of trouble with this exercise. The reason I say hopefully is because this will teach them how sensitive the ampullae of Lorenzini of a shark truly are and how good sharks are at what they do. It is imperative that these students understand that the metal detector is basically the sharks head and this is exactly how the shark finds its prey items and how it navigates. It uses its sense organs that are located all over their head to conduct these daily activities (Also, the prey items represent an electric field given off by the beating heart of the prey item, whereas the navigation items represent magnetic fields. The Earth’s geomagnetic field is heavily used by elasmobranchs to help them travel long distances in the deep ocean).

d) Elaborate. After this exercise, a video about conservation and field research will be played. This video touches on how sharks populations are being decimated and what scientists are doing to help rejuvenate shark populations. The neat thing about this short video is that it includes the concepts that the students just learned. The students should have learned that sharks use their electric sense to detect magnetic fields. With that concept in mind, it is now important to point out to them that the Earth’s magnetic fields are extremely weak and miniscule compared to the magnetic fields created by a magnet. Scientists theorize that due to this, if you place a magnet near the head of a shark, the shark will get a sensation similar to an electric shock and swim off. At the end of the video is a research experiment which each student will watch and analyze their own data (See worksheet pertaining to this lesson plan).

c. Evaluate. To evaluate the students knowledge, questions can be asked throughout lecture, but most importantly, the worksheet will be the main assessment. Students will be assessed by their ability to transform data into a graph, a skill that is extremely beneficial for these students to learn.

Post Lesson Notes from Teacher:

1. This, by far, is one of the most exciting lesson plans I have ever taught. The students love it and I am sure they will remember the information for quite a long time. Although most of the information is abstract, you will be absolutely surprised by what the students get out of the lecture.

2. The metal detector exercise is a lot of fun, for both the students and the teachers. You can spice it up a bit more by making them wear shark fins on their heads.

3. This lesson plan can be scaled down to a 6th grade level or could even be used on the college level. I taught this at the college level and got excellent feedback, so good luck and enjoy!