DISCOVERY BAY
ALL ABOUT SHARKS
OVERVIEW
Find a number of experiments and activities about Sharks and endangered species to do today. But make sure to check out your rank advancement tracking or Nova tracking tools at the Dive Boat to see what is needed for your rank to complete. For example: while anyone can complete the Dino Match Game, it is only needed for the Wolf Rank, Digging in the Past.
PLAY A DINO MATCH GAME
Millions of years ago, there were many types of dinosaurs and ancient reptiles. There were dinosaur herbivores (plant eaters) and carnivores (meat eaters), plus plesiosaurs (PLEE-see-uhsawrs) (sea creatures) and pterosaurs (TER-uh-sawrs) (flyers). Read about some of these creatures in the Resource Reef. Then try to match the correct creature to the clues. How to play with others: Give out cards with dinosaur facts on them to half of the people playing the game. Give cards with pictures of the dinosaurs to the other half. Have every player find his match.
CREATE YOUR OWN DINO
Create an imaginary dinosaur. Take note of its name, what it eats, and where it lives.
Now you can make up your own dinosaur using your imagination! A Scout is thrifty, so create one out of recycled objects and common craft items. Some items you can use include water bottles, laundry soap bottles, soda cans, bottle caps, cereal boxes, container lids, chenille stems, buttons, clay, papier-mâché, cardboard tubes, spools, construction paper, and felt! Remember to ask an adult before you use any of the materials you collect. Share your dinosaur with your family. Remember, your dinosaur is your own unique creation. Don’t forget to make up a name for your dinosaur and tell where it lived and what it ate.
MAKE A FOSSIL CAST
Fossils are the remains or impression of a prehistoric organism, or living thing, preserved in earth or rock. Examples of fossils include skeletons, leaf prints, or footprints embedded in the earth’s crust. Some fossils, like the T. rex footprint at Philmont Scout Ranch, formed when a dinosaur stepped onto soft ground and left a print. When the ground hardened, a fossil formed. Today, you will have the chance to make your own fossil! Instead of soft ground, you will use air-dry clay.
MATERIALS NEEDED
-
Air-dry Clay
-
Paper Plate
-
Items to fossilize! This can include: a leaf, toy dinosaur, plastic bug, spider, or another object
-
DIRECTIONS
-
Roll your clay into a ball in your hand.
-
Pat it down on a paper plate to flatten it out to at least ½ inch thick. It is OK if it looks a little bit lumpy. The ground is lumpy too.
-
Press your object into the clay
-
Carefully remove the object.
-
The impression (the dent left behind by your object) is just like the impressions left behind by dinosaurs! Follow the instructions on the package to let your clay harden.
.jpg)
MAKE A DINO/FOSSIL DIG
Make a dinosaur or fossil dig. Paleontologists dig through layers of the ground to carefully uncover bones, rocks, leaf fossils, and other objects that were left behind when the dinosaurs died. Today, you are going to make your own dino dig!
MATERIALS NEEDED
-
Disposable aluminum pan
-
Plaster of paris
-
Safety glasses, dust masks,
-
Small nails
-
Paint brushes
-
Hammer
-
arious objects (toy dinosaurs, polished rocks, silk leaves, etc.)
DIRECTIONS
-
Have an adult mix plaster of paris.
-
Have an adult help you pour enough plaster of paris to cover the bottom of each pan. Place a few objects in the bottom layer.
-
Have an adult help you pour another layer, and place more objects.
-
Repeat until the pan is full.
-
Set the pan aside to dry for at least 48 hours
It’s time to have a dinosaur dig! Paleontologists use many different types of tools to dig out bones and fossils. Because they do not want to damage anything, they usually use small tools like chisels and paint brushes. You will be digging through plaster instead of rock, so you can use a large nail, a small hammer, and paint brushes to dig out your objects. Be careful while you work so you can get the dinosaurs out in one piece!
MODEL BOATS TO SAIL
There are so many kids of boats. Some have motors. Some have sails. Some carry cargo. Some carry people. Some go fast. Some go slow. The shape of the boat depends on the job it is supposed to do.
BUILD A BOAT
Using items around your house, build two different boats. Use the facts about boats to help you make a model boat that works like a real boat.
Body (or hull) Ideas:
-
A water bottle
-
A milk carton cut in half lengthwise
-
An egg carton
-
Corks stuck together with toothpicks or wrapped with rubber bands
-
Part of a pool noodle
-
Recycled yogurt or sour cream containers
-
Sponges
Mast Ideas:
-
A straw
-
A craft stick
-
A stick from your yard
-
A pencil
Sail Ideas:
-
A piece of paper
-
Craft foam
-
A piece of fabric
FACTS ABOUT BOATS
The buoyancy of an object measures whether it will float in water. Why is it that some objects float and some sink? You probably know form playing with objects in the water that metal sinks and a piece of wood will float.
Whatever the boat is made from, it takes up space in the water. The amount of space it takes up is called displacement. If the amount of water the boat displaces weighs the same as the boat, the boat will float.
There are many different types of boats -- too many to count! Here are some examples of boats:
-
A rowboat can be made out of different materials (like wood, aluminum, or fiberglass). A rowboat has seats and a person rows the boat with oars. The oars are help in place my oarlocks, so they do not fall into the water.
-
A canoe is pointed at both ends to glide through the water easily. Canoes do not always have seats. You can move and steer a canoe with paddles. Canoes can tip over easily, if the people in the boat are not being safe.
-
Kayaks have a lightweight frame and are covered except for a single or double opening in the center. You use a double-bladed paddle to move a kayak.
-
Sailboats can move without oars or paddles. Instead you set your sails to catch the wind to move the boat. To steer, sailboats use rudders attached to a stick or a wheel.
-
Motorboats or powerboats are pushed through the water by an engine and a propeller. The engine turns the propeller. Most powerboats and motorboats have a V-shaped bottom. These kinds of boats slice through the water. They are great for skiing and wake boarding. They are faster and easier to turn than other boats.
.jpg)
KAYAK
CANOE
ROWBOAT
.jpg)
SAILBOAT
MOTORBOAT
SHARK BOOKMARK
MATERIALS NEEDED
-
square blue paper (best if it’s blue on both sides, the tutorial shows
paper that’s blue on one side only to make instructions more clear) -
white paper
-
pink paper
-
wiggle eyes stickers
-
glue
-
scissors
-
marker
DIRECTIONS
-
Ready to start? Fold the paper diagonally (both diagonals). Fold into a
triangle. Crease the fold. Now take hold of the top corner of the triangle
(one paper only) and fold it towards the bottom as indicated by the pink
dot. -
Grab one corner on the bottom and fold it toward the middle. Do the
same with the other one (see the pink dot). Unfold both. -
Now grab one of those corners again and fold it towards the top of the
triangle (see the pink dot). Do the same with the other corner. Now tuck
these two “flaps” into the pocket and you’ve got yourself a nice base to
work on. -
Even with the classic origami paper (color on one end and white on the other you can make a fancy looking shark (they do have white bottoms after all).
-
It’s time to decorate! Cut fins, teeth and tongue. Glue them on/in to make the shark. Stick on two wiggly eyes stickers and your shark is ready to take a bite at the next book you will read.
BIODEGRADABLE MATERIALS
Items purchased online or from mail-order catalogs are shipped in boxes and protected with packing materials that range from plastic bubble wrap to popcorn. Packing materials sometimes end up as litter along roadsides or take up space in landfills. In this experiment, you will find out which packing materials are biodegradable.
MATERIALS NEEDED
-
4 gallon size Ziploc bags
-
4 cups of sand
-
3 6 pieces of foam packing peanuts
-
Popcorn kernels
-
Small piece of plastic bubble wrap
DIRECTIONS
-
Label four resealable plastic bags “1,” “2,” “3,” and “4.”
-
Pour a cup of sand into each plastic bag. Then add a cup of
garden soil to each bag. Carefully mix the sand and soil by
squeezing the mixture in each bag. -
In bag 1, place six small strips of newspaper.
-
In bag 2, place six foam packing peanuts.
-
In bag 3, place six pieces of unbuttered, unsalted popped
popcorn. -
In bag 4, place a small piece of plastic bubble wrap.
-
Fill each bag almost to the top with garden soil. (Leave enough
space to allow the bag to be closed.) -
Pour half a cup of tap water into each plastic bag.
-
Close each bag. Place all four bags near a sunny window.
-
After two days, open the plastic bags, stir the soil, add half a cup of tap water, and reclose the bags.
-
Wait three more days, then empty each bag onto a sheet of newspaper and look for the packing materials in each. Use a magnifying glass to examine each material.
Which packing materials showed signs of decomposition? Which do you think were biodegradable? Which were nonbiodegradable? Explain the differences between the materials that are biodegradable and the ones that are nonbiodegradable.
WHY DO SHARKS SINK?
Fish have a gas-filled swim bladder that keeps them afloat in the water. Sharks stay afloat or stay buoyant due to an oily liver and some fat. The oil in a shark’s liver is lighter than water. It gives a shark some buoyancy. The oil is still heavier than water and if the shark doesn’t keep moving it will sink. will sink.
MATERIALS NEEDED
-
Blue file folder
-
Two Strong Ziplock Plastic Bags
-
Vegetable Oil
-
Water
-
Large Plastic Tub or Box
DIRECTIONS
-
Before you can start, you will need to cut two sharks out of a
plastic blue file folder. -
Fill the tub almost up to the top with water.
-
One of the plastic bags will need to be filled about 2/3 of
the way with water. -
The other bag needs to be filled 2/3 of the way with vegetable oil. The oil represents the oil that is in the shark’s liver.
-
Then you will need to place a shark into each of the bags. If you want to place duct tape over the top of the bag to keep the liquids in you totally can.
-
Place each of the bags into the water vertically. Watch what happens to the bags. The bag with the oil will probably flip on its side. The bag with the water in it will probably sink.
-
As you can see the oil filled bag floats! Which is exactly what the large oil-filled liver of the shark does! It’s not the only way a shark remains buoyant, but it is one of the cool ways we can demonstrate shark buoyancy. Oil is lighter than water which is why the other bottle sunk on us. So this is how sharks maintain buoyancy without a swim bladder.
Sharks are buoyant, in other words they don’t sink but they really should! Buoyancy is the ability to float in water or other fluids. Sharks need to put effort into remaining buoyant. In fact, if they stop swimming they will sink. Most bony fish have a swim bladder. A swim bladder is an internal organ filled with gas that helps the fish float without having to swim all the time. But sharks don’t have a swim bladder to help with buoyancy. The reason is sharks can rapidly change depth without bursting an air filled swim bladder. How does a shark float? There are three main ways that sharks use their bodies to float. This floating shark activity below covers one of them, the oily liver! Sharks rely on a pretty big oil-filled liver to help them stay buoyant in water.
HEAD TO SUSTAINABILITY SHORE!
Take the suggested route to Sustainability Shore to learn about the trash vortex and "stuff", and so much more!
Head to Sustainability Shore
YOU ARE HERE
Discovery Bay
Go back to the campground