How do you teach kids in rural upstate New York how big a Blue Whale is? You build a life size Blue Whale. The Ecology class at Hoosick Falls Central is doing just that! We are creating an 80 foot long, clear plastic inflatable model of a Blue Whale.
On Thursday, February 5, and Friday, February 6, this inflated whale will be our classroom for teaching elementary students and the public about Blue Whales, ocean food webs, pollution and planetary responsibility. Students will teach others using hands-on activities, facts, whale songs and more.
To help people understand about how much we pollute the oceans with plastics, we are asking people to bring the number of plastic bags equal to their age as admission to see the whale. For example if a child is seven years old he or she will bring seven bags. We will be totaling the number of plastic bags and hope to eventually fill the entire whale with bags before they are recycled by our local G.U. Family Market. We also hope this will promote the use of fabric shopping bags as an alternative to plastic.
We would like to thank the Home Depot in Bennington, VT, for their generous donation to our project as well as the Hoosick Falls G.U. Family Market for their support in recycling the bags.
For more information or to come see The Blue Whale Project contact Melodee James at jamesm@hoosick-falls.k12.ny.us or call Hoosick Falls Central School at 518-686-7321.