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ORCA’s Whale Education Month 2019

Lesson Pack 2: Voices of the Deep

Delve into the underwater world of whale and

dolphin communication!

What do whales and dolphins sound like, and who

are the record breaking singers of the deep?

Find out using the following lesson plan, presentation

and activities! Registered Charity Number: 1141728

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ORCA’s Whale Education Month 2019

Lesson Pack 1: Communication

Welcome!

This teacher’s pack aims to educate and inspire students (aged 7-11) around the UK about the wonderful world of

whales, dolphins and porpoises, and how these incredible creatures communicate with one another. Included in this

pack are all the resources needed to deliver a fun, scientific class about these animals, with the hope of raising

awareness of the importance of their conservation. ORCA’s Whale Education Month is running from the 1st – 31st

October 2019, to coincide with World Animal Day on the 4th October.

About ORCA:

ORCA are a UK based whale and dolphin conservation charity, dedicated to the protection of whales, dolphins and

porpoises (collectively known as cetaceans) and their habitats in UK & European waters. We and our volunteers help

protect these inspirational animals in a number of ways; by educating the general public through our schools

programmes onshore and our Wildlife Officer programmes offshore, through our Marine Mammal Surveyor Training

Courses across the country, and, once trained, through our volunteer surveyors working on ferry and cruise ship

routes monitoring vulnerable whale and dolphin populations. We freely share our data with governments and other

research institutions. Our work is all about creating safer places for whales and dolphins, ultimately promoting the

health of the wider marine ecosystem.

ORCA provides whale and dolphin workshops for schools, as part of our educational programme. Being based in

Portsmouth, there is never enough time to visit as many schools as we’d like. This teacher’s pack will provide the

same engaging presentation and educational activities to students, whilst allowing teachers to be trained and able to

deliver the content themselves.

For more information, please visit our website www.orcaweb.org.uk

There are three lesson packs;

1. Communication 1 – Communicating in the Underwater World

2. Communication 2 – Voices of the Deep!

3. Communication 3 – Oceans of Noise

The below information is for the pack Communication 2 – Voices of the Deep! and this pack follows on from

Communication 1 pack.

Keep in touch!

We hope you enjoy taking part in ORCA’s Whale Education Month, and if you have any questions, please do not

hesitate to contact us;

info@orcaweb.org.uk

02392 832565

ORCA, Brittany Centre, Wharf Road, Portsmouth, PO2 8RU

If you or your school uses social media, the hashtag is #WhaleEducationMonth

and our Twitter handle is @ORCA_web

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ORCA’s Whale Education Month There are a wide range of different materials, activities and games provided for ORCA’s Whale Education Month.

These resources link in with the National Curriculum;

Science

Years 2 – 6: Living things and their habitats

Years 2 – 4: Animals, including humans

How does the pack work?

We have provided a PowerPoint presentation about Voices of the Deep for you to deliver to your class. Notes for

the presentation are below.

Once you have delivered the presentation and activities, you can print off the certificate to proudly display in your

classroom!

Please note that this pack and presentation follow on from Communication 1 – An introduction into whale and

dolphin communication

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Teacher’s Notes: Presentation 2 – Voices of the Deep

1 Introduction: Today, we will be learning about, and listening to, the sounds that whales and dolphins make underwater. We will find out which whale makes the loudest noises, which whale can sing for the longest amount of time, and which whale or dolphin makes the strangest noises! We know why whales and dolphins communicate, but let’s listen to them a bit more! This presentation has been provided by ORCA, who are a UK-based whale and dolphin conservation charity. The charity’s aim is to have oceans alive with whales and dolphins!

2 And just as a recap, we know that toothed whales, for example the bottlenose dolphin, sound very different to whales such as the humpback whale or blue whale. This is because toothed whales use echolocation to communicate, but baleen whales do not. The baleen whales sing to each other instead!

3 This incredible picture here shows the 90 different species of whale, dolphin and porpoise that can be found around the world. [click] Lots of different species of whale, dolphin and porpoise live in the ocean, meaning we have lots of different voices!

4 The first activity we will be doing is to try and guess which animal the sound recordings come from? But first, you might wonder how we get sound recordings of whales. We can use an underwater microphone, called a hydrophone, to record the sounds of whales, dolphins and porpoises.

5 Your finalists are these 5 creatures;

Blue whale – Michael Blueble

Orca/killer whale – The Killers

Common dolphin – Dolphin Bieber

Humpback whale – Humpback Street Boys

Harbour porpoise – Harbour Streisand

6 Contestant one! Which of the 5 creatures do you think this is? [click speaker icon to play sound]

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7 Ask the class: Which of our finalists do you think this was? Ask the class: Do you think it sounds like a toothed whale using echolocation, or a baleen whale singing?

8 It was the common dolphin….or Dolphin Bieber! A toothed whale. [click to reveal some facts about common dolphins, which you can read out]

9 Contestant two! Which of the 5 creatures do you think this is? [click speaker icon to play sound]

10 Ask the class: Which of our finalists do you think this was? Ask the class: Do you think it sounds like a toothed whale using echolocation, or a baleen whale singing?

11 It was the harbour porpoise…or Harbour Streisand!! A toothed whale. [click to reveal some facts about harbour porpoises, which you can read out]

12 Contestant three! Which of the 5 creatures do you think this is? [click speaker icon to play sound]

13 Ask the class: Which of our finalists do you think this was? Ask the class: Do you think it sounds like a toothed whale using echolocation, or a baleen whale singing?

14 It was the humpback whale….Or the Humpback Street Boys! A baleen whale. [click to reveal some fun facts about humpback whales, which you can read out] [click] And the humpback whale wins the award for the longest whale songs – some songs can be up to 4 hours long!! If a whale hears another whale singing a song that it really likes, it adds this to the end of its song. So their songs get longer and longer. It’s just like us hearing a really catchy son in the morning, and then signing it all day!

15 Contestant four! Which of the 5 creatures do you think this is? [click speaker icon to play sound]

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16 Ask the class: Which of our finalists do you think this was? Ask the class: Do you think it sounds like a toothed whale using echolocation, or a baleen whale singing?

17 It was the orca or killer whale….Or The Killers! A toothed whale. [click to reveal some fun facts about orcas, which you can read out]

18 Contestant five! Which of the 5 creatures do you think this is? [click speaker icon to play sound]

19 Ask the class: Which of our finalists do you think this was? Ask the class: Do you think it sounds like a toothed whale using echolocation, or a baleen whale singing?

20 It was the blue whale….Or Michael Blue-ble! A baleen whale. [click to reveal some fun facts about blue whales, which you can read out]

21 Ask the class: Which was your favourite?!

22 So now we’ve listened to come incredible whale and dolphin and porpoise sounds already, let’s have a look at the whale song record breakers!

23 Firstly, let’s hear the strangest whale sound….. [click speaker icons to play sound] Ask the class: Does anyone know what whale makes these strange noises?

24 It’s the Bowhead whale [click to reveal some fun facts about bowhead whales, which you can read out]

25 Secondly, let’s hear to the whale that makes the loudest noise! Don’t worry, these sound clips are not as loud as they would be in real life! [click speaker icons to play sound] Ask the class: Does anyone know what whale makes these loud clicking noises?

26 It’s the incredible Sperm whale They make the loudest noise in the whole animal kingdom!! They use these very, very loud clicking noises to firstly find their prey – the huge giant squid. Then, when the whale is very close to the squid they use their secret weapon….a sound boom! This

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noise is so loud that when it hits the squid, it stuns them, which makes them easy to catch and eat! [click to reveal some fun facts about sperm whales, which you can read out]

27 But how loud is the sperm whale? Decibels are a unit used to measure the intensity of a sound. This chart here shows some familiar sounds, from the quietest being a human breathing, all the way up to a jet engine. Ask the class: Where do you think the sperm whale’s sounds go on this chart? [click to reveal where the sperm whale sits on the chart] Wow! It’s even louder than a jet engine!!!!

28 Thirdly, let’s hear to the whale that makes the widest variety of sounds! [click speaker icon to play sound] Ask the class: Does anyone know what whale makes these noises?

29 It’s the beautiful Beluga [click to reveal some fun facts about belugas, which you can read out] They are nicknamed the canaries of the sea due to sounding like the bird!

30 Now onto some fun whale song facts

31 The 52-hertz whale is an individual whale of unidentified species, which calls at the very unusual frequency of 52 Hz. This pitch is a much higher frequency than that of the other whale species with migration patterns most closely resembling this whale's – the blue whale (10–39 Hz) or fin whale (20 Hz). It has been detected regularly in many locations since the late 1980s and appears to be the only individual emitting a whale call at this frequency. It has been described as the "world's loneliest whale", as it has no-one else to talk to… To human ears this is a low bass note.

32 Humpback whale mothers and calves whisper to each other to keep them safe from predators. Their main predator is the orca, or killer whale. So they don’t want them to hear that they are around!

33 And similarly, harbour porpoises are also predated by orcas, so they produce sounds at such a high frequency that they can’t be heard by them!

34 There are different types of orcas that live around the world – each different type specialising in a type of prey and feeding techniques. They also speak different languages, as we already know. So the type of orcas that feed on other marine mammals are very quiet – so that their predators can’t hear them coming!

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35 However, orcas that feed on fish are quite chatty, as there is no risk that the fish will hear them coming.

36 So now you know what lots of different types of whales, dolphins and porpoises sound like! Communication Pack 3 looks at noise pollution and how this affects whales and dolphins.

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Thank you for taking part in

ORCA’s Whale Education Month!

If your school would like to fundraise or donate to help us

continue our vital research and education work, please visit

our website www.orcaweb.org.uk

Thank you for your support.