Educational Resources

For educators | Books for Kids | Websites for kids | By kids

For educators

National Geographic has three Lesson Plans, geared for different ages:

• Grade 3–5: Does the Hammer Help? with links to a video of scalloped hammerheads swimming. (Not the best video; you want to see footage of them making turns, not going straight!)
• Grade 6–8: Are Hammerheads a Keystone Species? (a Keystone species "has a major influence on the structure of an ecosystem") Low scientific, high suasive content.
• Grade 6–8: What's the Hammer For? A good lesson. Note that the link to ReefQuest Expeditions: Topics in Shark Biology has changed.

Hammerhead Sharks of the Gulf Of Mexico by Mrs. Goins, a Texas schoolteacher. Collects drawings, photos and text about the various species of hammerhead sharks.

Books for Kids

Jules Verne's novel In Search of the Castaways isn't about hammerheads, but it starts with the catching of one, and Verne's always a great read. It is illustrative of 19c. attitudes toward hammerheads.

"'The more of those terrible creatures that are killed the better, at all events,' said John Mangles, 'so let's seize the chance, and it will not only give us a little diversion, but be doing a good action.'" …

… "As he got nearer, his great projecting eyes could be seen inflamed with greed, and his gaping jaws with their quadruple row of teeth. His head was large, and shaped like a double hammer at the end of a handle. John Mangles was right. This was evidently a balance-fish— the most voracious of all the SQUALIDAE species.

Grades 4-6: Amazon. Swimming with Hammerhead Sharks by Kenneth Mallory. publisher blurb.

Review by Denise Daley, Childrenslit.com (scroll down):

"Readers of this well-written and interesting book will develop a new respect and appreciation for all sharks."

Baby-preschool: Amazon. Survival in the Sea. The Story of a Hammerhead Shark by Linda Lingemann, illustrated by Stephen Marchesi. Mother hammerhead gives birth. I guess this one way to desensitize kids to what they would normally be afraid of.

Websites for kids

Yahooligans. Minimal.

By kids

Sam's grade 3 hammerhead report from Crocker Farm Elementary School, Amherst, MA. Cute drawing.

Hammerhead Shark: They're the Best by Chad Cooper, of Mrs. Brock's 3rd Grade class, Delight Valley Elementary School.

Datasheet by "Jace, Robert and Zac" with some data, and crude (but correct) sketches of different hammerhead species' heads. As their teacher, I'm not sure I would have accepted "the weirdest looking shark" as the requisite "interesting thing."