Students learn more and retain knowledge longer when they construct meaning for themselves, rather than having the teacher do it for them. Investigating personal inquiries, solving problems, and exploring issues create intimacy with subject content and skills. In addition, satisfying one's intellectual pursuits is very motivating. We suggest, therefore, that teachers encourage students to question from multiple perspectives and to pose problems to solve. Teachers should facilitate students' constructive responses to issues whenever possible.

The following section of the Giant Squid Web Page curriculum is an evolving list of possible investigations, problems, and issues associated with the search for giant squid, and deep-sea research and technology. Additions from teachers, students, researchers and interested public are always welcome!

1. With what would you have to be concerned when working with electronics and underwater research?

2. Why do whales and dolphins beach themselves? What can humans do to help?

3. Why is it that the scientists who watched the Odyssey's first videotapes saw what looked like footage from the Star Wars movie in which space ships "jumped to lightspeed"? What is actually happening in the human eye to cause these blurred streaks of light?

4. How did Adam Frankel determine the depth of whales by listening to the clicks of whales?

5. Why do giant squid have larger and fewer neurons (nerve cells) instead of smaller and more neurons?

6. What do stomach contents tell researchers? Why investigate them?

7. What is it about saltwater that heals open wounds so quickly?

8. How do scientists know where to look for giant squid?

9. How does a squid sucker work?

10. How do we determine salinity of water?

11. Which has broader geographic distribution: marine species that produce small, but many eggs, or species that produce few, but large eggs?

12. Why would sucker scars on sperm whales be unreliable evidence for the size of the squid that made the scars?

13. How do submarine sonar and radar work?

14. Explain the relationship between the success of the Maori people and the historical way they treated the whales in the coastal waters off the south island of New Zealand. (Include their history in both whaling and whale watch tourism.) What does their experience teach us in our relationship with [insert a local animal or plant with which the students would be familiar]?

15. What is the muscle structure of the squid's funnel and why is it built that way?

16. What adaptations has the Giant Squid made to its habitat?

17. Why do giant squid not get crushed by pressures at the depths in which it lives? Why do our deep-sea submersibles not collapse at those depths?

18. Why would the sail squid (Histioteuthis) have one large eye and one small eye?

19. What are the advantages of photophores to sea animals that live in the depths of the ocean?

1. How can you keep the ropecam from snagging on fishing gear, the canyon walls, rock outcroppings, or swimming creatures?

2. How do you mount a sonar transducer to the bottom of the boat's keel such that it:
   • extends well below the keel of the boat
   • is light-weight, and easily retrievable
   • remains rigidly straight against four knots of boat speed?

3. What is the best way to ship sensitive and expensive camera and research equipment? Specifically, what sort of packing material will best protect the equipment from extreme temperatures and rough handling in transit?

4. What can be done to make the dangerous descent on the dew and moss-covered ladders leading to the research vessels "lurching in the rough ocean below" more safe?

5. How do scientists attach a crittercam to a live sperm whale?

1. Which is more important: scientific truth and discovery, or animal discomfort? See the journal entries about the use of crittercams. (Find the entries for February 16 and March 12, 14, and 15.) At what point does one become a higher priority over the other? What are the responsibilities of the scientist? . . .the local government? . . .the sponsoring organizations? . . .the public?

2. Would you be willing to wear a crittercam so others might learn from you?

3. If you could pick three living species from the ocean to save for all future generations, which would you pick and why?