Thanks to a grant from the Pacific Whale Foundation, first-graders from Patricia Carlisle’s and Elizabeth Encarnacao’s classes at Kealakehe Elementary School were able to take a special field trip to Dolphin Quest at the Hilton in Waikoloa.
Thanks to a grant from the Pacific Whale Foundation, first-graders from Patricia Carlisle’s and Elizabeth Encarnacao’s classes at Kealakehe Elementary School were able to take a special field trip to Dolphin Quest at the Hilton in Waikoloa.
Through their research of dolphins for their informational writing projects, students learned about these friendly creatures, including their use of echolocation. Students were given the opportunity to practice their echolocation skills by listening and identifying sounds of various balls in cans. This exercise, led by the Dolphin Quest staff, helped them to further understand how dolphins use echolocation to find food in the ocean.
Students also participated in additional educational activities to help make them more aware of what they can do to help keep our oceans safe and clean for dolphins and other sea creatures.
Everyone’s favorite part of the trip was a face-to-face encounter with the dolphins. Students were taught how to give hand signal commands and also had the opportunity to feed fish to their friends. As expected, many students were cooled off on the warm day by their dolphin friends’ splashes.