The Trip to the Oriam – March 2024
To begin to explore the topic of Global Goals, we arranged a trip for our pupils in Primary 6’s to go to the Oriam at University to hear from some marine experts to learn about how sea life, in particular, whales were impacted by human behaviour.
The groups had two experiences, one being able to go inside the body of a life size blow up whale and the other visiting the Robotarium to hear from, and see in action, a real life whale robot which has been used to capture data about whales within the seas and oceans surrounding Scotland.
During the trip we were able to handle some real life bones, skulls and baleen. We were amazed at the sizes of the bones and tried to imagine the size of some of the larger whales, some as long as the hall we were in.
A marine biologist that specialises in understanding the behaviours of orcas was also really interesting. We looked at the sizes and shapes of fins to establish there gender and where they might come from. Their markings were all different and they had lots of different shaped heads and skulls depending on what they ate.
On our way back to the bus, we got to see around the university.
It was an interesting trip but we are now aware of some of the dangers facing the species and want to learn more about how to protect our seas and oceans.
