Instead, just surf with your students over to Wake Forest University's Albatross Project for a great online lesson in biology, math, and geography. Students make discoveries nearly as fast as professional researchers in this interactive satellite study of bird flight. First, take your students to the Albatrosses at Work section for full background on the birds and this project. Here students will view pictures, and learn a wide variety of facts about the birds. Next, get acquainted with the scientific problem.
Scientists know that albatrosses nest on Tern Island in Hawaii.
But they aren't sure why the birds leave their nesting grounds and go out to sea for weeks at a time. Your students' mission is to help answer that question. To get started in the experiment, go to the Hawaii Study. Examine the maps here of Hawaii and the rest of the Pacific. Then study the albatross data charts already in progress, which show the movement of the birds from Tern Island to areas as far away as California and Alaska's Aleutian Islands.