We have jelly, and we have fish…and then we have jellyfish. Jellyfish can be smaller than your fingernail, or up to 6 feet wide! They can weigh as much as 440 pounds, but not all of them are dangerous. It’s hard to swim around counting these things, but scientists say jellyfish make up 40% of the weight of all living things in the ocean. That comes to almost 7 TRILLION pounds of goopy jellyfish. Too bad we can’t use them to make PB&J sandwiches.
Wee ones: Some jellyfish are flat circles. Find 3 circle shapes in your room.
Little kids: Which weighs LESS, a 5-pound jellyfish or an 9-pound jellyfish? Bonus: How much would a jellyfish weigh if it were halfway between those two?
Big kids: If you go fishing and pull in a thousand 6-pound jellyfish, how many tons do they weigh? (Reminder if needed: A ton equals 2,000 pounds.) Bonus: A lion’s mane jellyfish’s tentacles (squiggly legs) can be 120 feet long! If your house is a perfect square, with same length as width, how wide could it be for the jellyfish still to be able to wrap around once?
Answers:
Wee ones: Things might include plates, the rims of cups, and the faces of clocks and watches.
Little kids: The 5-pound jellyfish weighs less. Bonus: 7 pounds.
Big kids: 3 tons, since they weigh 6,000 pounds. Bonus: 30 feet wide (120 split into 4 equal parts for the 4 sides).
