The 7 to 9-year-old girls occasionally glance away from the Bill Nye video to check if a question on their worksheet was answered. The worksheet consists of 15 facts about marine mammals from the nearly 20-minute-long episode. Each question requires students to either fill in the blank or circle one of two words using the provided word bank.

After a question is answered, the science teacher pauses the video to ask the students the answer and to clarify any confusion, rewinding if they missed it.

Ms. Renee asks the teacher to assign each student a question to read aloud so she can confirm the information she learned from the episode. She stands next to the students as they read a sentence and helps them when they have trouble, quietly praising those who enunciate well.

As the students take turns reading their sentences, Ms. Renee spots words, such as “webbed”, that she suspects they aren’t familiar with and, under the guise of not understanding the words herself, asks the science teacher to provide a definition, which a couple students chime in on.

Once everyone has read a question, the students write a letter to a family member or friend, telling them at least one piece of information they remember from the video. As they work, the counselors help those who haven’t learned to write yet and prompt those who struggle to recall a fact.

The girls pay particular attention to how cute the animals, such as the seals, are.