the phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for;
That's what happened here at school today. Our first grade class is studying marine mammals and their teacher asked if I could help her find some live web cams of marine life. After a quick Google search I found a live beluga whale camera from the Vancouver Marine Aquarium and the Shamu Cam from Sea World, but the surprise came when I found the live sea otter camera from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Shortly after the video started streaming I could see the otters swimming around in their pool, but then I started to hear someone talking. My timing must have been just right because that happened to be the time that the trainers came out to do a short 15 minute education program about the otters.I ran over to the first grade room and quickly got the live video up on their screen. The kids sat there and watched as the trainers fed and weighed the otters. They explained what they ate and discussed otter behavior. The talk was just perfect for 1st grade.
Sometimes you get lucky. I had no idea that their live cam also had sound. After checking the web site I found out more about the Monterey Bay Aquarium live cams and interpretive programs. Maybe you'll find this information useful in your classroom.
Monterey Bay Aquarium Web Cams
Sea Otter Feeding and Training Session - Live Cam
Daily at 10:30AM, 1:30PM, and 3:30PM (Pacific Time)
Kelp Forest Fish Feeding - Live Cam
Daily at 11:30am and 4:00PM (Pacific Time)
Outer Bay Fish Feeding - Live Cam
Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun at 11:00AM (Pacific Time)
If the times for the live presentations don't work for you, they also have many links to pre-recorded videos as well.
IMAGE CITATION:
Baird, Mike. "Adult Sea Otter in Morro Bay, CA." mikebaird's photostream. 14 Dec 2007. 10 Jan 2008 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/2112205672/)
3 comments:
How awesome for those first graders! Our first graders do a big unit on animals and sea life and take a field trip to the Oregon Zoo. Their web site has a huge collection of videos. Take a look http://www.oregonzoo.org/Gallery/video.htm
Thanks Jenn. The Oregon Zoo site has a lot of great video clips. I'll be forwarding it to our primary teachers.
Glad you enjoyed it. You can follow other feeding shows at Monterey Bay Aquarium, too,. Our Outer Bay exhibit (tunas and other open-ocean fishes), Kelp Forest exhibit (multiple fish species in a temperate kelp forest) and penguin exhibit (African blackfooted penguins) all have live webcams during regularly scheduled feedings.
Ken Peterson, Communications Director
Monterey Bay Aquarium
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