Lesson Plan #:AELP-ANM0067

Whale Echolocation

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Rebecca G. Whitworth, Perkins Elementary School, Perkins, OK
Endorsed by: These lesson plans are the result of the work of the teachers who have attended the Columbia Education Center's Summer Workshop. CEC is a consortium of teacher from 14 western states dedicated to improving the quality of education in the rural, western, United States, and particularly the quality of math and science Education. CEC uses Big Sky Telegraph as the hub of their telecommunications network that allows the participating teachers to stay in contact with their trainers and peers that they have met at the Workshops.

Date: May 1994

Grade Level(s): 2, 3, 4

Subject(s):

OVERVIEW: This activity will provide students with a concrete experience in using echolocation to track an object.

PURPOSE: For students to understand how sound and echo can be used to track objects.

OBJECTIVE(s):

Students will be able to:

1. Explain echolocation.
2. Demonstrate how a whale uses echolocation to track food.
3. Be able to identify one other animal that uses echolocation.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS:

blindfold and large playing area

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:

1. Set up perimeter of playing space.

2. One student will become the whale and be blindfolded.

3. Other students can move to any place in the boundaries, but they must stay there.

4. The whale then gives the signal "echo" and the other students (the food) respond with "location". The whale tracks the food and the food then becomes the whale.

Variations in the game:

1. Have students vary the volume of response.
2. Let students move in-between responses.
3. Let students sit, stand, or lie down.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:

Discussion questions:

1. Is it easier to track food by sight or sound?
2. What happened when the food was quieter or louder?
3. What other animals might use this system of finding food?
4. What would be different in a real ocean situation?