Second-grader Alena Smail uses a flashlight to look over the various parts inside the whale shark. Photo by Vickie Moss / Iola Register
Students in SAFE BASE, the after-school program in USD 257, learned all about whale sharks as part of the annual Shark Week program. A school bus was decorated as a whale shark, the world’s largest fish that can grow to the size of a bus. Students crawled through a barrel to go into the bus, which was decorated with “organs” to look like the inside of a shark.
Students also learned about ocean pollution with an interactive presentation. They filled a tub with water and toy ocean creatures such as sea turtles and sharks, then discussed what would happen when they dropped oil and torn pieces of plastic bags into the environment.