Sharks: Secondary unit

An Acknowledgement of Country is a statement that pays respect to the Traditional Custodians of the Country that you are learning or meeting on and recognises their ongoing relationship with Country. The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the Custodians of the land on which the Museum stands.

Which First Nations Country or Nation was your school built upon? If you are unsure contact a local First Nations organisation to find out. You might like to start with the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group.

Ask your students to write an Acknowledgement of Country for your school. To get them started, read more about why an Acknowledgement of Country is important and how to write one in this ABC article.

Write an answer to the following questions in your workbook:

• What beliefs, feelings or opinions do you already have about sharks?
• Where and how do you think you developed these?

You will return to these answers after your visit to the Museum.

Classification is the process of describing new species and grouping organisms based on their similarities and differences. In biology, we call this classification ‘taxonomy’, and it helps us understand how living things are related to each other.

How are sharks classified? Write down as many features of sharks that you can think of e.g. they swim in the water, they have gills, they are carnivores (or not), they are streamlined, they have markings, colours, spots or patterns, the positioning of fins, the shape of their teeth. On the whiteboard, start collecting these responses and grouping them into things sharks have (i.e. structural features) and things sharks do (i.e. behavioural features).

If you get stuck, look at the below images of sharks and respond to how they are different.

Using your responses and how your categorised on the whiteboard, answer the following question:

• Which do you think are more useful to scientists when classifying living things in a taxonomy: structural features or behavioural features? Why?
• Can you think of other ways scientists could classify sharks and other living things?

The Status of Australian Fish Stocks Reports is a government initiative that records the status of Australia’s fish stocks. This includes the Shark Report Card, which documents the rate at which sharks are being overfished in Australia.

With the Shark Report Card, answer the following questions:

1. Using the pie chart, how many species have been assessed in the report card? How many species have been assessed to be sustainable at current levels? What percentage of species have been assessed as depleted, depleting, and recovering?
2. Using the Global Red List bar graph, how many species do not have enough data (i.e. data deficient)? If you remove the data deficient species from the bar graph, what percentage of the remaining species are endangered or critically endangered? What percentage of the remaining species are near threatened or vulnerable?
3. Using the table at the bottom, how many species are protected under Australian management? How many species have a plan to rebuild their population?

A food chain is a model that shows how energy flows between living things in an ecosystem. Watch the following video about food chains from Crash Course.

Just like in the video, there are delicate food chains in our oceans. Sharks are important parts of these food chains; often they are at the top of their food chains, so we call them ‘apex predators’. Here is an example of the food chain with the Sand Tiger Shark as the apex predator.

In groups, use the SharkSmart website or the animal factsheets below to research one shark found in NSW, one species of prey, and what that prey eats. Using these three species, draw and label a food chain.

As a class, discuss what would happen if you removed the shark, the apex predator, from your food chain. Use these prompts to get you started:

• What would happen to the population of the shark’s prey?
• What would happen to the population of the prey’s food?
• How might a change in the food chain disrupt the whole ecosystem?
• Food chains are made up of producers, consumers and decomposers. What are the species in your food chains?

Using the food chains from the previous activity, print out or draw an image of each species on A4 paper. Label these species 'producer', 'consumer' or 'decomposer'. If you need to, add more species to your food chain to include at least one 'producer', 'consumer' and 'decomposer'. Print out or draw some large arrows to represent the flow of energy.

Move around the class looking for groups who have species in common with your group. Using the arrows, combine your food chains to create a food web i.e. if a species of shark eats two other species, have two arrows pointing towards the shark.

Once you have combined to create a food web, discuss the following questions in your groups:

• How many other students could you combine with? How big does your food web become?
• What external factors could affect the populations of your species?
• Is this model of a food web realistic? Why, or why not?

While Sharks is over, there is a lot to see at the Australian Museum to support what you have already completed in class.

The Museum is free for self-led visits, or you can browse and book one of our science, history or First Nations educator-led programs.

Complete the below activities alongside the Sharks digital publication to engage with the important themes and amazing specimens of the exhibition.

3D shark models

There are lots of 3D shark models in this exhibition – and we mean lots! Select one species factsheet below, investigate its model and find out as much information about it as you can. Get started with the following questions:

• Where in the world does your shark live? What type of environment does your shark live in e.g. shallow reefs or deep ocean?
• You can use the panel on the left-hand side of the model to bring up the measuring tools. Use these tools to find out how big your shark is.
• What does your shark eat? How does it find its food?
• What are three fun facts about your shark?
• Is your shark a protected species? Is its home protected by marine parks or conservation practices? What threats exist to your species’ population?

Once you have completed the questions, find someone else in the class that selected the same shark as you. Discuss what could be done to protect your shark and its habitat.

When you are back in the classroom or at home, write an answer to the question:

• After your visit to Sharks, what beliefs, feelings or opinions do you have about sharks?

Compare the reflections to your responses before you visited the Museum.

A quarter of all shark species are under threat. Overfishing, shark finning, plastic pollution and climate change are continuing threats to shark populations around the world.

Choose one of these threats to sharks, and research two statistics that help explain that threat's impact on the world shark population. For example, find out the amount of plastic that enters our water each year and the amount of plastic that has been found in sharks' stomachs.

Use an online design platform to create a visual representation of these two statistics. For example, you could use an outline of a shark to show the percentage of sharks contaminated with plastic. You can use the below infographics about sharks as inspiration!

Stick your designs and diagrams up in the room to create a visualisation of the threats to shark populations around the world.

The NSW Government uses a range of technology, trials and research to keep track of sharks and their populations, and to keep us safe. Choose one technology from the SharkSmart website and research how they work, their benefits and their considerations.

In small groups, come up with a design for a new technology that would minimise the risk of shark bites, while also protecting them in their habitats. Draw and label your design.

How can we change the public perception of certain animals?

Watch Eliza and Claire's video about sea cucumbers and how they need to be protected. Before you start, ask yourself: what opinions or beliefs do you already have about sea cucumbers? Are they positive or negative?

Sea cucumbers aren't the only species that could do with having their public image improved. Sharks get a lot of bad press – they are even depicted in films as villains!

We know that humans are at risk of shark bites and that we need to be careful and sensible when we enter their habitat. But did you know that, on average, only 10 people worldwide die from a shark bite each year?

While you were visiting Sharks or engaging with the online publication, you selected one of the shark models and wrote down interesting facts about it. Now it is time to give this shark some good press for a change!

Create a storyboard for a Youtube video that highlights the amazing things about your shark, what we can do to stay safe in their habitat, why it needs to be protected and how we can help. Once you have created a storyboard and a script, use a class device to film and edit a short video. Things to include in your video:

1. The name of your species and where it lives.
2. One interesting fact about your shark.
3. What threatens the survival of the species e.g. overfishing, climate change, plastic pollution, finning.
4. What the viewer can do to help protect the species.

Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize

The Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize is a national short film competition that encourages school students to communicate a scientific concept in a way that is accessible and entertaining to the public while painlessly increasing their science knowledge. Eliza and Claire's video above came second place in the 2018 prizes. You can learn more about the Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize here and submit your own!