For my homeschooling this week, I am studying 3 animals on Kangaroo Island and writing some kind of report. I am using observations, and researching online the things I wonder about.

Day 1. Pelicans

We went to the pelican feeding in Kingscote. Here's a video of them.

The feeder told us about the birds and then I asked him some questions when everyone had left.

Pelican quiz

1. What is the hook at the end of the bill for?
2. Is there any variation among pelicans of the same species?
3. How sharp is the hook? a. dull b. sharp c. very sharp
4. What do pelicans eat?
5. Which bird has the biggest bill in the world?
6. How do pelicans carry food to their babies? a in their bills b in their stomachs
7. How many species of pelican are there?
8. Do females mate for life?
9. How buoyant are pelicans?
10. How can you tell if a pelican is ready to mate?

Answers are below ....

....(keep scrolling!)...

Pelican Quiz Answers

1. To get under the scales of fish and hook them, so they don't slip away
2. No, they all look the same, not like some animals which have different patterns like each zebra. There are some differences between males and females though.
3. c. very sharp
4. fish. sometimes seagulls. once, a chihuahua.
5. the pelican!
6. b in the stomach
7. 8 species
8. no, they mate with different males each time
9. very buoyant. they can't dive under water at all!
10. its neck goes darker pink and the yellow around its eyes gets brighter

teacher note: To make this quiz, Angus hand-wrote notes during the talk, and observed pelican body shape and behavior himself. When he followed up with the speaker, he spoke clearly and stayed on topic (despite the speaker's tangents and other conversation with Papa) to find out if his guesses about the reasons for the behaviors were correct. Angus discussed the speaker's answers with Papa, Mama, Grandpa, and Grandma. He also looked up the number of species online, with Papa's guidance.

Day 2 - Sea lions

I did scientific research on sea lions. Here's the work I did:

First, we went to Seal Bay. We walked on a wooden catwalk and looked at sea lions on the beach.

In this video they are lively, but when I was there they looked like they were dead. There was one chilling in the shade under the catwalk. He was very close and his whiskers were as long as his flippers.

Then, Papa and I talked about what we'd seen and I picked an interesting question to study:

"Are sea lions more like dogs or whales?"

I chose dogs and whales because seals seem kind of like both of them.

Then I drew a line from dogs to whales. I put sea lion features on the line, nearer dogs if it was a doglike feature, and nearer whales if it was more whale-like.

• In common with dogs: "Toes", Fur, Meat eating, whiskers, snout
• In common with whales: blubber, aquatic, fins

Then, we looked at this evolution chart. (to try it yourself, click "fullscreen" icon in upper right, then search for "whale", and then"sea lion" (use the binocular icon in upper right).

onezoom.org (opens the interactive version)

Papa and I were both surprised by what we found: sea lions and whales (link) are not closely related! Sea lions in the same branch as dogs, its called "dog like carnivores". Whales (link) are in the "cloven hoofed mammals" branch! I know that sounds weird, but the little back leg bones are in their skeleton, they just don't show on the outside.

Then Papa helped me make this into a speech. It had an introduction, a middle part where I explained my Whale/Dog chart and the Tree of Life, and a conclusion. My conclusion: sea lions may be more like dogs, but there are reasons to doubt this.

Papa and I rehearsed it twice, and then I gave it to everyone at dinner. I was about to explore from stress inside, but I acted like I didn't care, because I didn't want to crack. I think the talk went pretty good. They all seemed to really like it. Grandpa asked me to say it a little slower, and I did.

Papa said he was really proud of this project because we used a scientific process , just like adult scientists do all the time:

1. ask an interesting question

2. gather data

3. look at data and learn something new

4. share what I learned

Papa kind of got me started on this project, but then I kind of figured it out from there.

teacher's note: this was primarily a verbal report, but we also captured it afterwards in writing: Angus dictated most of the text above and Mama type it in. Then Papa re-organized it and added a lot about the process. Angus read and revised what Papa wrote.

Day 3: Crocodiles are Less Dangerous Than You Might Think

The End.