Art or photography will be a component of the photo-identification studies. While the teacher directs the general progress of this unit, students chose the specific topics they research and study. The teacher is a facilitator and resource while students are the researchers and presenters. Students work individually and in groups for these activities. Materials and Formative Evaluation - Materials needed are listed under each activity.
Evaluation is listed at the end of each lesson.
At the end of the unit, students will be evaluated on their photo-id research projects, charts and plots of whale sightings, interpretation of data and their narrative. They will be evaluated on the originality of their research topic and their research methods for their own photo-id studies and on the accuracy and imaginative analysis of the data from the humpback catalog. The knowledge they have gained throughout this unit should be reflected in their narratives and presentations on productivity. Natural histories of 20 marine mammal species common to the North Atlantic Ocean, software for YOU to photo-identify your own humpback photographs, and sighting histories of each humpback whale in our catalogue .