THOUSAND OAKS : Students Sink Their Teeth Into a Lesson About Sharks

First, Sea World instructor Warren Hugins pulled the palm-size jawbones of a horn shark from his collection.

Next, he grabbed the larger jawbones of the bull shark, and presented the rows of white teeth to the crowd at Madrona Elementary School in Thousand Oaks on Monday afternoon.

Then he pulled out the jaws of a great white.

“Whooaaa!” gasped the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders as Hugins walked around the audience with jawbones big enough to stick his head through.

“The bottom teeth will act sort of like a fork, holding the food steady,” Hugins said, pointing to the sharp white teeth. “The top teeth are more like a knife, biting down on the prey.”

“I wouldn’t want to be in there,” said sixth-grader David Rocha, 11.

But Hugins was quick to point out that sharks are more threatened by humans--from fishing, finning and getting caught in nets--than humans are by sharks.

The visit from Sea World workers--which stressed conservation and admiration of the large fish--culminated a monthlong study of sharks and the sea in most of the classes at Madrona.

“This is really twice as good because they had materials beforehand,” Principal Patricia Adams said. “It really makes a difference when they have the background.”

Sixth-grade teacher DeDe Dryer said her class had been calculating math problems using information about sharks, and playing a game designed to teach differences between types of sharks.

And it appeared to be working.

The children shouted out answers and instructions on where to put different shark parts as the group worked together to construct a plastic replica, which they affectionately named “Mark the Shark.”