Wisconsin has no ocean. And yet, when a 56-foot gray whale named Clara shows up in a school gymnasium, kids hug her nose. Unprompted. Instinctively. With the kind of affection children reserve for things that feel alive. This is what ocean conservation education looks like in a landlocked state.

There is an unwritten rule during Forest Whales programs. Actually, I made it up on the spot one afternoon in Three Lakes, Wisconsin, about two minutes before my next group of elementary kids was due to walk through the gymnasium doors.

Nick Isaaksson is the gym teacher at East Elementary in Jefferson, Wisconsin. He had the presence of mind to check the fisheye security camera on the morning of May 19th and send me what he saw. I have been doing this for fifteen years. I have never seen myself from above before.

Clara the whale is coming to your school. But the program your students experience on the day she arrives is only part of what Forest Whales offers. The schools that get the most out of a visit treat it as an event with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Every principal knows the feeling. You book an assembly, students file in, and forty minutes later they file back out. By lunch, nobody remembers what it was about. These ten programs are different.

A life-size inflatable whale that travels to your school, covers NGSS standards, and lets every student hold a Megalodon tooth is a rare thing. Here is an honest guide to what is available, what to look for, and how Forest Whales stacks up.

I told the kindergartners that Clara might be a mama whale, which means she might have a... I let the sentence hang. Usually kids erupt immediately. This group was quiet. Then one small voice asked, very seriously: "A tummy ache?"

Over 830 people showed up in Burlington, Wisconsin, on a Saturday. The line stretched long enough that the wait exceeded an hour. What made it possible wasn't just a 56-foot whale. It was what happens when libraries decide to work together.

Gray whales are among the most fascinating animals on Earth. They hold the record for the longest mammal migration, feed by vacuuming the ocean floor, and produce milk so thick it barely flows. Here is everything you need to know about one of the ocean's most surprising creatures.

As a 40-something-year-old father of two, I’m constantly on the lookout for family-friendly travel destinations that strike the perfect...