As you may know, I have two toddler-age daughters. So as you might guess, our bathtub is full of bath toys. One of those toys is a water scoop that is made to look like a whale. Tonight, during bath time my oldest asked, “what’s a whale say?” Not being able to make a whale sound myself, I turned to YouTube for a video of whale sounds. In doing so I stumbled into a TED-Ed lesson about whale sounds.

Why Do Whales Sing? is a TED-Ed lesson through which viewers can learn which whales (all baleen whales) sing, how whales create songs, how far their songs can travel, and theories about why whales sing. The lesson also teaches viewers how man-made noises in the oceans can affect the feeding and migration patterns of whales.

Applications for Education
In addition to being an interesting lesson about whales and whale anatomy, Why Do Whales Sing? could be a good introduction to a lesson about how sound travels.