Fifteen rolls of painter’s tape later, there are eighteen total animals put up around Westford Academy, each made to scale of the actual size of the animal.  These were evenly divided into six animals for each of Girardi’s 3 CP1 courses.

“It was challenging but fun.  I learned a lot,” said junior Molly Ryan.

While the whales are stealing the spotlight, in actuality all marine mammals are represented, with everything from a polar bear to sea otters to Pinnipeds, which includes sea lions and walruses.

“My students had a great time doing it, they enjoyed being in the halls.  I can’t fault them for that,” said Girardi.

The process behind developing this project was as simple as collaborating with another teacher.

“I took a course over the summer, where another teacher taught marine biology, and we switched all of our info,” said Giraridi.

Marine Biology’s biggest unit is the animals of the ocean.

“We start with really simple, mundane, boring ones, like porifera, which are sponges.  Then we climb up the animal kingdom until we get to the chordates, in which you have your fish, your reptiles, your sea birds, and then the mammals are the absolute last animals that we study,” said Girardi

The rest of this course will be focused on sharks.  Students will study everything from hammerheads to great whites to even goblin sharks, and hopefully some sharks will grace our walls in the next few months.

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