Celebrating Science
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 

Resource Guides:

  • Grade K - 4
  • Grade 5 - 8
  • Grade 9 - 12
    		•
    Saved by a Shark!
    Video of sharks and other animals living among the coral reefs
    The Demystification of Sharks  
    What do you picture? When we think of sharks, we usually think of sleek, large species that stalk the seas for fishes and marine mammals. Some do just that, but not all! The huge basking shark feeds on plankton. And the small horn shark crushes and eats clams, lobsters, and crabs. Some sharks are giants—longer than a school bus. Some are tiny enough to hold in your hand. Some spend their entire lives in motion. And some rarely stir from the sea bottom. Yet they are all sharks!

    Through this Celebrating Science experience, students will see and learn from a marine biologist the natural history of sharks and recognize the important role humans play in conserving the shark’s population and ecosystem. Students will follow a shark biologist through her inquiry process, observing a real-world application of the scientific method.

     

    Video Information:

    Virtually visit Coconut Island Research facility located in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii to learn about sharks! This educational video introduces students to sharks and allows students to follow shark biologists as they go shark fishing, gathering data for their research study.

    		  
     
    Expert: Toby Sarah Daly-Engel  
    Toby Sarah Daly-Engel is a Zoology PhD candidate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Toby currently works at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at Coconut Island where she studies the reproduction of three species of closely related sharks: the sandbar shark, the bignose shark, and the Galapagos shark. Over the years, Toby has had many teaching opportunities and really enjoys teaching kids about science. As a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the National Science Foundation GK-12 Program, Foundation GK-12 Program, which is a nationally funded program that combines research science with K-12 education, she understands how to present information on sharks and marine ecology in an engaging, effective way for young students. Toby is skilled in collecting marine biological field data using hand capture, tag-and-release, and modified long line fishing, and analyzing these with the use of various genetic techniques. She hopes someday to become a professor at a university and continue to do research on sharks.

    In her free time, Toby likes to surf, do yoga, and go hiking. Her favorite type of shark is a tiger shark because they have beautiful gray stripes and are very big and powerful. Her favorite shark tale is the time she and her coworkers caught a brand-new baby tiger shark and found out that when they’re newborns, tiger sharks have spots, not stripes. (The stripes develop as they get older and the skin stretches.) They named the baby tiger Freckles and kept her in a tank at the lab where she learned to be gentle and take fish from people’s hands. Toby is committed to learning about sharks and sharing her knowledge with people of all ages to help protect this special and often misunderstood animal.