Underwater Predators: Octopus, Sharks, Orcas, & Dolphins (Semester Long)

Your learner will come away from this class knowing a lot more about the biological wonders of various large and small sea creatures. We are going to become science detectives and try to answer the following perplexing questions about animal intelligence, and large underwater sea creatures in particular:

Are octopuses successful escape artists?
Do dolphins use baby-talk with their young? 
Can a shark use electricity to navigate? 
Do orcas purposely try to sink ships?

In each class we will: 
Learn about the key traits, habits, biology, and defenses of large undersea creatures.
Explore aspects of animal intelligence and perception for each creature.  What cool discoveries have scientists recently made?
Review concepts and facts we learned the week before, before building upon that knowledge.


Curriculum (a sample of the first two days of class):
Lesson #1: Octopus unique biology  
                   Students will learn about key aspects of octopus biology including: the close and distant family relations to the octopus, the difference between vertebrates & invertebrates, as well as how the arms, brain, blood, and suckers of the octopus are unique compared to other animals.  Learners will be presented to fun and whacky facts about the octopus. 
Lesson #2: Octopus varieties 
                   Students will learn about the top ten unique varieties of the octopus and how its unique traits raise questions about octopus evolution and ecological niches. 
Lesson #3: Octopus Defense mechanisms
                    We'll review materials from last class. 
We'll look at the octopus's cousins the cuttlefish and squid to examine chromatophores that cephalopods use for camouflage.  We'll look at the components of octopus ink and what it does to predators. And finally, we'll learn about other defense mechanisms octopuses use including how to mimic other predators. 
Lesson #4: Octopus Intelligence 
                   We'll review materials from the last class as we begin to discuss the problem of animal intelligence--what counts as 'intelligence' in the world of science, and watch a fun set of octopus escape room videos, as well as videos about cuttle fish intelligence, counting, and talk about how squids might use their bioluminescence to communicate with each other while hunting in packs.