Our fourth-grade class recently embarked on an exciting journey into the world of marine research through the Ocearch Shark Tracker. Ocearch is a non-profit organization dedicated to studying and conserving marine life, particularly sharks. They tag and track large marine animals, allowing scientists—and students like us!—to follow their journeys and collect valuable data in real-time. This tracker helps researchers understand these creatures’ habits and migrations.
Each student in our class chose an animal to follow on the OCEARCH tracker, gathering data about its travel distances, weight, and movements. To make the data meaningful, we created comparisons like “as heavy as a car” or “has swum the distance of two football fields.” Our final project involved creating informative posters using rounded data inspired by museum exhibits where numbers are simplified for clarity. Some students worked with decimals to deepen their math skills for added differentiation, while others rounded to whole numbers.
Through this project, we blended math, science, and conservation, giving students a real-world perspective on marine life and the importance of clear, accessible communication in conservation efforts.
