Autumn term learning

Guardians of the Wild have been asked to go to North America to help a team who are worried about the whales there. We found out what it is like in Canada and in particular in Labrador and Newfoundland.  We had a lot to organise. We needed to know how much the flights would cost to get to Canada and what the landscape would look like so we could pack appropriately. We have used maps and satellite images - ordering them from zoomed out to zoomed in.

We did a bit of research on the Adventures at Sea team by looking at trip adviser reviews. It seems lots of people have enjoyed whale tours with them, but that more recently their customers have been left frustrated as they haven’t seen any whales. Oscar and his team are worried about where the whales are and the declining number of them in the area. 
 

The children have composed a sound scape of the noises they heard when looking for these whales out in the ocean. A podcast was also created to inform the public of the possible reasons why the North Atlantic Right Whale is becoming endangered… 

The children have been working scientifically. They have investigated  how sound travels and how this can be achieved through different mediums. Pitch and volume have been explored, alongside learning where sound sources come from. We also investigated how to muffle sounds and generated some brilliant conclusions. Some children have even started to think of their own investigations and have recorded their results in their own ways to show their conclusions. 

The children have been learning about sustainable, renewable energy. Wind farms are great in the open countryside and Wave energy systems are beneficial in the oceans to generate electricity.
Although a renewable source of energy, the installation of the wave energy systems can affect marine life when the cable is installed into the seabed. This can in turn affect whales hearing and their ability to communicate with other whales. Making connections from their Science lessons, children were able to use their knowledge of sound to explain how this installation affected the North Atlantic Right Whale.

• They suggested the whales heard the installation more because it was closer to the sound source  
• They understood that the human on land watching the installation would hear differently to the whale because although sound waves travel through air and water, human and whale ears are adapted differently for life in air or water 
• Some drew the man on land with ear defenders. They explained this was because it was muffling to the sound to protect their ears from the volume. 

The Animal Heroes 2023

We have taken on the role of Animal Heroes again - just like we were in Year 1 but now with new challenges! 
We are getting ready to fly to North America to help with a problem with whales and closer to home a much loved habitat in the Norfolk Broads is under threat…