Positives

• Many students will be unaware of whales' relationship to climate change.
• Learning about the relationship between whale poop, phytoplankton, and carbon sequestration is amazing!

Additional Prerequisites

• The term "blue carbon" may be new for many students. Blue carbon is carbon that is sequestered in the oceans and ocean ecosystems.
• There is an error in the text in the video at 2 minutes, 52 seconds. The speaker in the video, Carissa Cabrera, says "support the initiative called 30 by 30," but the text says "support the innovative called 30 by 30."

Differentiation

• This video could be shown in a history class when studying the whaling industry. Students could make the connection between historical and modern whaling and whales' importance to addressing the climate crisis.
• In a biology class, students could study populations of specific whale species and efforts to conserve these species.
• Another great resource we have on oceans and phytoplankton is this interactive lab from TERC.