While the educators from the Newport Aquarium's "Shark Cart" program clearly know a lot about sharks, it turns out several Brentwood students know quite a bit, too!
During today's convocation, students learned about ocean life and the role sharks play in that environment (be sure to ask your child about some of the interesting facts they learned, or shared, today). And many students were able to easily answer some of the questions the aquarium's educators posed. But when the topic turned to caring for the ecosystem, most were surprised to learn there are more "Rs" than just reduce, reuse and recycle! They might start using "refuse" and "repurpose" as your family makes decisions about which products to use.
Understanding how different products, especially many common plastics, harm our ecosystems was an important part of today's program, but that wasn't all that held their attention. Anyone who wanted to could very careful "pet" the shark in the cart, and by all accounts, nearly every student took advantage of the rare opportunity.
One more interesting piece of shark trivia: sharks have tiny scales, almost too small to see. They are arranged down the back of the shark. You "pet" a shark starting at the fins near its head, and lightly touch in a downward motion. Otherwise, you would be moving your fingers against its scales, which feels to a shark like having our own fingernails pulled back! Let's face it, when petting a shark, we certainly wouldn't want to cause it any discomfort!
