Teaching Trunks
Sharks: Fact or Fantasy

Although sharks have lived in Earth’s waters for over 450 million years, many people still do not understand sharks, while others cannot distinguish them from the false images we see in the media. Sharks: Fact or Fantasy, takes students through lessons that help them see how sharks are different from their movie counterparts. Really, sharks are a diverse group of marine life with an incredible history, and an interesting make-up. This Teaching Trunk provides numerous shark artifacts and fossils that students can handle and examine up-close for details as they dispel the myths that society knows today.

Inventory

Educator's Notebook
With background information and classroom activities

Books

• Sharks: Fact and Fantasy by Judith Chovan and Sara Crump
• Terra Magazine, Volume 28, NO. 3, Spring 1990

Videotape

• Sharks: Fact and Fantasy (15 minutes)

Artifacts and Specimens

• Fossil Shark Teeth
• Fossil Shark Tooth: Carcharocles megalodon (miocene)
• Shark Reproduction: Horn shark & Swell Shark egg cases
• Shark Skeletons: shark and bony fish vertebra
• Shark Skin: shark skin, shark leather, and sandpaper
• Shark Tooth Shape Defines the Prey: comparison of 3 shark jaws
• Shovelnose Guitarfish (Rhinobatos productus)
• Silvertip Shark Jaw (Carcharhinus albimarginatus)
• Smoothhound Sharks: Gray Smoothhound and Leopard Shark
• 2 magnifying glasses