Whale of a day for Ford students

LYNN – The Ford Elementary School gymnasium was transformed into a makeshift marine biology laboratory Tuesday as students were treated to the New England Aquarium’s Whale Day program.Through a funding grant from the Lynn Business Education Foundation, the school decided to do something more productive with the downtime commonly found in the last few days of the school year and taught students the basics of marine biology as well as the importance of protecting marine life.The program offers students a look at whale bones and other artifacts from marine creatures such as dolphins, sharks and sea lions and information on conservation provided at booths by parent volunteers.While many of the topics were interesting for students, it was hard for most to take their eyes off the star of the show, Calvin, a 42-foot inflatable right whale set up in the center of the gymnasium.The model is designed to mirror a real right whale that was orphaned at less than 1-year-old. The New England Aquarium research team is studying the species of whale and trying to preserve them, as only 350 remain.The Whale Day festivities are part of an end-of-the-year program designed to introduce students to science.Teachers Penny Bix and Kathe Landergan wrote a grant for the program and submitted it to LBEF earlier this year when the organization offered three $2,500 awards to area schools.The idea was to take advantage of a few extra days tacked on to the school year because of school cancellations by adding a science program. The teachers chose the New England Aquarium program partially because of the content, and partially because of the recommendation of Landergen’s son.”My 23-year-old son still remembered this from the second grade,” she said. “It is very educational.”Teachers prepared students for Whale Day by showing videos and incorporating the ideas of the day in to their lessons leading up to this week. Aquarium workers also came ahead of time and spoke to the students, and gave the parent volunteers a one-hour course so that they could work the information booths and do activities with students.”It is nice to see the parent volunteers here,” said Ford Principal Claire Crane. “It is a fun thing for them – something different for them to do.”Monday’s festivities included looks at sharks and penguins, as well as a study on tide pools and water properties.