Question
What types of resources would you suggest are best for an elementary school student (grade 4 or 5) who needs information regarding whales -- habitat, behavior, different species?
Answer
Hi Lucy,
I'm sorry that it's taken so long for someone to respond to your question. Hopefully the information below will still be of use to you.
There are a lot of good resources on whales and other marine animals on the Internet. Some of my favorites are these:
WhaleTimes: Fishin' for Facts Library
http://www.whaletimes.org/whafshn.htm
The WhaleTimes site has lots of information about all kinds of sea creatures, including whales. In the Fishin' For Facts library, types of whales are divided by baleen whales and toothed whales. When you click on the name of a specific whale, you'll find a Web page with all types of information about that whale, including its scientific name, its size and diet, where in the ocean it lives, etc. This site also has a question-and-answer service called "Ask Jake the Seadog", so if you have a specific question about a whale, he'll respond directly to you.
Kids' Planet
http://www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/map.html
Kids' Planet has a neat page of the status of endangered species arranged by geographic location. Students can choose "Humpback Whales" under the South America heading to see if this species is endangered. In addition to providing the status of the whale, the page also provides lots of information on the whale, such as its size, location, range of migration, behavior, and other information.
Discovering Whales
http://www.omplace.com/omsites/discover/index.html
This page provides information on many different types of whales. There's a photo gallery, an online statistical guide to the weight and length of whales (you can sort the results by male or female length, by weight, etc. A nice feature!), geographic distributions of different whales, and current research.
The Sperm Whale Project
http://www.prattmuseum.org/programs/spermwhale/
This is a neat resource where users can watch museum staff, local high school students, and volunteers take a sperm whale through the various stages of preservation, cleaning, and mounting the skeleton for display.
I hope these resources help you. If you need more information, check with your school or local public librarian.
Thanks for asking your question!
Joann
whales
http://vrd.askvrd.org/services/answerschema.xml
