Why Does Whale Feeding Behavior Matter?

Videos

Grades9, 10, 11, 12Biology

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by American Museum of Natural History

Open Resource

What it is

In this video from the American Museum of Natural History, students will understand the importance of the research following the feeding patterns of blue whales.
Students will get an idea of how climate change and warming oceans may impact whales and their ability to feed on krill.

Teaching tips

Positives

This video includes graphics and images that help support students' understanding.
Students will get to hear from researchers and professors and get a glimpse of what it is like to do this kind of research.

Prerequisites

Students should have a basic understanding of the effects of global warming on the ocean.

Differentiation & Implementation

Teachers can pause the video at about 2:55 and ask students to infer the meaning of specialist as it is used in this video. Teachers can then have students discuss how population changes may be more impactful for species that are specialists.
To expand on the impacts of climate change on the ocean currents, teachers can check out this resource.
An excellent follow-up to this video to extend the discussion about ocean plastics is this unit. Students can also take some time to think of or record all the single-use plastics they encounter over the course of a day.
Teachers can connect this video to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Below Water. This video can help define this goal.

From the scientist review

This resource features extensive interviews with scientists engaged in researching blue whale feeding behavior. Conservation and future uncertainty in whale populations due to climate change are the focus. Throughout, videos of research expeditions are included. This resource is recommended for teaching.

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At a glance

Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Subjects: Biology
Language: English
Location: Earth
Provider: American Museum of Natural History
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Published: September 18, 2025
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · HS-ESS3-D.2. + 4 more

Core

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

HS-ESS3-D.2.Through computer simulations and other studies, important discoveries are still being made about how the ocean, the atmosphere, and the biosphere interact and are modified in response to human activities. (HS-ESS3-6)

New Jersey Climate Education Hub

English Language Arts

SL.II.9-10.2Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, qualitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.

Science

HS-LS2-6.Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS4-5.Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.
HS-ESS2-5.Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.

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Teaching tips

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