For older students in high school, hold a class dissection of a small shark purchased from a fish market. Dissecting the shark shows the lack of bone structure in the animal and gives students a chance to see firsthand what the internal organs look like. Compare the boneless, cartilage-based body of a shark to the bones in a fish. Combine this lesson with an anatomy or biology class or a lesson only on sharks. In "Focus on Scientists" by Mary Ellen Sterling, the dissection lesson is suggested with an extension for students to draw the anatomy of the shark they see as it is cut open.
Construct a mural as a class for the habitat of a shark. Hang a long sheet of butcher paper on a wall in the room and have the students draw pictures of animals and plants found in the shark's habitat. Older children can write the scientific and common names of the flora and fauna. Younger children can simply draw the image and write the common name of the animal. Use the mural as the starting point for a lesson on the food web under the ocean and explain how the plants and animals are either eaten or eaters of each other.
Students learn to examine a shark's anatomy to see how it has adapted to life as an underwater hunter, as suggested by a lesson in John E. Readence's "Content Area Literacy: An Integrated Approach." Show a picture of a shark on the board or have students draw their own. Encourage discussion among the students about the distinctive features of the shark. Note that the gills let the shark breathe underwater and the large teeth are adapted for ripping prey. Fins help the shark to move through the water.
Do a class comparison chart between sharks and whales. In one column, list the features unique to sharks, list whale features in a second, and write down what they both have in common in a third column. Get suggestions from the students after a lesson or textbook reading about sharks and whales. For instance, you might have listed that sharks have gills, whales have lungs and they both live in the ocean. As an extension, have the students write a compare and contrast paper from the information collected by the class.