In this activity children are asked to consider why animals migrate and why it is important to understand their food chain.
Description
Scientists are closer to solving the mystery of where walruses head to in the summer months after attaching satellite tags to eight of the beasts. Until now, the Arctic animals' migration route and destination have remained a mystery to researchers. A Danish-Greenlandic team had to spend five days off the west Greenland coast in harsh conditions to tag the mammals.
Children are asked to consider why animals migrate and why it is important to understand their food chain.They also hope the devices will shed light on how hunting, oil exploration and climate change affect walruses. They then plot the co-ordinates from the tagged walruses to plot their migration route. They complete a letter to describe how walruses feed and how they are adapted for effective feeding methods.
Learning Objective:
- how to plot co-ordinates on a grid
Children will learn:
- to use data to determine feeding methods.
- to consider animal adaptations
- to construct a food chain
These resources were initially developed in partnership with the Centre for Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University.