Fin whale baleen_01

Feel it – a Fin whale baleen!

The use of exhibits in the museum educational programmes is a popular means to fascinate visitors and introduce them to a particular topic. It is just something special to hold the tooth of a Sperm whale or even the baleen of a Fin whale in your hands. Visitors of any age enjoy it very much.

Often, the touching and feeling of the exhibits also facilitates understanding of their function. Baleen are an example of this: baleen are horn-like lamellae on the upper jaw of baleen whales. They work like a sieve. But what does it mean exactly? Anyone who has felt the structure of the baleen once, gets a good idea of it. After touching it, it seems logical that the small and smallest sea creatures would stick in this mess of frayed ends. These can then be stripped away wiht the tongue and eaten by the whale.

The museum educators at the German Oceanographic Museum use the beards of Fin whale and Minke whale for many different things. Frequently they are used to draw attention to the difference between toothed whales and baleen whales. Just as often they serve as an introduction, to discuss the how and why of different feeding strategies of marine life in detail.

Feeling has another advantage for the visitors: in this way the experience is retained much better in memory, as feeling the object is fun. Nevertheless, such models can only be used in specific cases, because the pieces have to be made to a high quality and are, as a result, labour intensive. This means that users and museum educators appreciate their use even more.