Ashbury College - Final Day

This morning the students took a short break from marine biology to visit the bird banding station on campus.  Tracey introduced the students to a couple of songbirds that had been captured in the mist nets.  She talked to them about the data that is collected on these little birds before they are given their band and released. 
 
Next the students did a bell ringer lab quiz to test just how much information they have retained from this week’s immersion into marine biology.  While the teachers were setting up the quiz the students could be found all over lower campus cramming and quizzing each other on terms such as Arthropoda, aboral, and madreporite.  I think they were pleasantly surprised by the amount of information they have learned. 
 
To round out the morning we conducted a barnacle behaviour lab with the students.  During this lab the students subjected barnacles to temperatures of saltwater from 5°C to 25°C to determine how this affects their feeding rate.    
 
After lunch the students put all of the information they have learned about the marine environment and the animals that live there to the test to develop their own behaviour labs.  Some of the labs included: the effects of light on sea stars, strength of sea urchin tube feet, and a survey of green crabs at Holey Point.
 
It is hard to believe Ashbury’s week with us is over already.  Thank you for a great week.  Have a safe trip back to Ottawa and have a wonderful school year!          

Tracey showing the students a Waterthrush

at the banding station.

Sweating through the bell ringer quiz.

Testing the effect of temperature on the feeding rate of barnacles.

Ashbury College - Day 4

During the morning of day 4 the students were very busy completing the seaweed lab, touring the Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC), and recapturing the periwinkles they marked the afternoon before. 
 
As part of the seaweed lab the students drew field sketches and identified the seaweeds they needed to know for the zonation lab in the afternoon.  Some of the samples they identified were rockweed, knotted wrack, red tubed weed (an epiphyte on the knotted wrack), and irish moss.  To finish up the lab they developed a dichotomous key of the seaweeds while on the bus trip to Green’s Point.
 
The ARC is a museum of preserved marine specimens from the North Atlantic.  The students were lucky to tour this facility as it is not open to the public.  Some of the specimens the students got to see during the tour were angler fish, puffer fish, and a porbeagle shark head.  According to the students the coolest creature they got to see during the tour was the whale fetus.    
 
Just before lunch while the tide was receding the students went to the beach to recapture the periwinkles they had previously marked.  The purpose of this was to estimate the periwinkle population.  Some of the students found 21 of the 25 periwinkles they had marked while others only found 4.  Quite the difference.  They group also learned a valuable lesson: don’t try to recapture periwinkles when the tide is high and always check the tide chart yourself.
 
After lunch the students boarded the bus to head to Green’s Point to complete their zonation lab.  During the zonation lab the students worked in groups of four along a transect line to identify and count the animals and seaweeds in their quadrate.   
 
For the evening the students were dropped off in town to have supper and check out the shops and scenery of the beautiful seaside location.  I am guessing seafood was on menu!  
 

Identifying seaweeds.

Deep sea fish specimen at the ARC.

Porbeagle head at the ARC.

Searching through the seaweed during the zonation lab.

Say "Periwinkle"!

Ashbury College - Day 3

With high tide in the morning the students began the day in the lab observing the invertebrates they collected from the beach and while on the research vessel.  During the lab the students did drawings and descriptions of the invertebrates, such as whelks, green crabs, bread crumb sponge, sea peaches, urchins, and sea stars.  This lab was fun because it gave the students a chance to see the animals up close and also to observe their movement. 
 
Just before lunch when the tide was going down the students headed to the beach on campus to mark periwinkles for their mark and recapture lab.  Each group chose a home base along the seaweed line and marked 25 periwinkles with bright nail polish.  After 24 hours the students will return and count both marked and unmarked periwinkles in their home base to get an estimate of the population.    
 
In the afternoon the students learned that at the Huntsman Worms are Winners.  Armed with buckets and shovels the students headed to Pottery Creek, a muddy beach.  They were amazed to find a great diversity of marine worms including clam worms, blood worms, milky ribbon worms, and opal worms.  They were also amazed to find that some of the worms have teeth and can bite.  A good life lesson!  While in this location the group also became master crab hunters and helped gather data on the invasive green crabs.       
 
To finish up the afternoon the students had a talk from Dr. Roxanne Gillett on Right Whale Conservation Genetics.  She described the significance of collecting the whale feces to determine genetics. 
 
In the evening the group met in the lab to focus on the echinoderms.  The students used the microscopes to observe some of the smaller parts of the sea urchins and sea stars, including the madreporite, the pedicellaria, anus, and the tube feet.  A treat was getting to see the urchins pooping! 

Sea peach

Can you see the periwinkles with the blue nail polish?

Clam worm

Marking and measuring a green crab.

Drawing the parts of a sea urchin

Observing the sea star using the microscope.

Ashbury College - Day 2

Tuesday was the big trip to Grand Manan and the weather was great.  The group left campus fairly early with their pack lunch to catch the ferry in Blacks Harbour.  While on the ferry the students conducted a transect line marine mammal survey.  They were to keep an eye out for whales and whale blows in the distance, as well as, seals, and porpoise.  The only animals to be seen from the ferry were harbour porpoises.
 
Upon arrival on Grand Manan Island the group left the ferry to board a local whale watching boat.  The group had a fantastic trip and saw approximately 10-15 fin whales, 9 humpback whales, 17-18 Atlantic white-sided dolphins (which are quite rare), grey seals, as well as lots of seabirds, including puffins, shearwaters, and razorbills.     
 
Below are some of Mr. Greig’s pictures from the trip.  

Group of humpbacks

Humpback fluke

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

Humpback and dolpohins

Another humpback fluke (humpbacks can be IDed by with pattern

on their fluke just like people can be IDed by their fingerprints).

 

Ocean Appreciation Week 2 – Young Explorers

We had a lot of fun with the students that attend the last Young Explorers program for the summer.  This morning we painted some treasure boxes and then headed to the beach for an intertidal scavenger hunt.  The students were allowed to keep a couple of shells and rocks to put in their treasure boxes to take home.  After lunch we played shark and herring, made a Popping Porpoise craft, played a game about overfishing (then got to eat the gummy fish!), painted patterns on humpback whale tails, and did an aquarium scavenger hunt.  Also, the students got to spend some time exploring the animals that live in the touch pool and the skate tank.

Below are a some pictures from our fun day.

 

A tiny green crab the students found on the beach.

Some treasures.

Why do porpoises come to the surface?

Each humpback has a unique pattern on their tail.

The new seahorse exhibit.

Working on the aquarium scavenger hunt and checking out the fish.

Slimy moon snail!

Spitting scallop!

Ashbury College - Day 1

Sunday evening a group of 29 students and 4 teachers from Ashbury College arrived at the Huntsman campus from Ottawa, and settled into Needler Hall.  They were excited and ready to start their weeklong immersion into marine biology Monday morning when they met with the Huntsman Education staff for their introduction to our facility and the area. 
 
For the day the group was split into 3 groups to rotate through a trip on the research vessel the Fundy Spray, the plankton lab, and the tour of the Fundy Discovery Aquarium.  The students got a treat at the aquarium, as they were the first school group to see the new seahorse exhibit.  They also got to view live animals that are native to the Bay of Fundy including harbour seals, lobsters, and wolffish, as well as, touch the skates, rock crabs, and a number of other animals in the touch pools.

 

While out on the research vessel the students collected plankton to use during the plankton lab.  The boat crew also conducted a number of scallop drags to allow the students to see, touch, and collect firsthand the animals they will be using in their labs the rest of the week.  The animals they collected included scallops, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, sea peaches, and sea stars.  Some of the brave students also had a taste of fresh from the ocean (i.e. raw!) scallop that they caught.  The girls were definitely braver than the boys!  A secchi disk and a salinometer were used to gather data on the light penetration, temperature, and salinity of the water.   
 
During the plankton lab the students used the microscopes to view the live phytoplankton and zooplankton they collected.   They drew, in fine detail, a number of different diatom species, as well as lots of copepods and other zooplankton.    
 
Yesterday the students also visited the beach at Indian Point to see how many phyla of animals they could discover living in the intertidal zone.  Hiding under rocks and seaweed they found green crabs, sea urchins, sideswimmers, and sea stars, above the rocks they found periwinkles and lots of barnacles.  The students that found the greatest diversity won some yummy local Ganong chocolate!  An important lesson some of the students also learned while visiting the beach was that their boots are only waterproof to the tops! 

After a yummy supper at Anderson House the students received a presentation from Danielle Dion, a biologist with one of the local whale watching companies, in preparation for their whale watching excursion today to Grand Manan.

 
Below are some pictures from Ashbury’s first day at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre.    

Captain Brian dumping the scallop drag.

The students looking at all the animals that were collected in the drag.

 

Green crab!

Collecting data using the salinometer.

 

A scale worm and a sea mouse (also a worm) collected from the ocean floor.

 

Plankton nets in the water.

 

"Yummy scallop!"

"Hey, I found a sea star!"

Exploring the intertidal zone.

Ocean Appreciation Week 1 – Young Explorers

Yesterday’s Young Explorers program was all about helping the students gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the ocean.  To help the students learn more about the different areas of the ocean and the animals that live in each area we played 3D ocean bingo, with marine creature tattoos being the prizes.  Then we collected some creatures from the touch pool to study.  Each student made field guide pages, complete with drawings, names, and descriptions of the animal they were observing.  Some of the students were very brave and picked up hermit crabs and rock crabs for the first time!  It was a great day!  Below are a couple of pictures from the program.

To register your child for the last Young Explorer program on August 28 call (506) 529-1200 or email huntsman@huntsmanmarine.ca. 

Creating beautiful field guide pages for each animal.

Some of the animals that the students picked to study.

Whale Week – Young Explorers

On Wednesday we had 14 students visit the aquarium to participate in the Whale Week Young Explorers program.  The students started out the day touching baleen samples from a North Atlantic right whale and a fin whale, as well as some porpoise and dolphin teeth.  To learn more about whale species that visit the Bay of Fundy the students made a whale tail puzzle (some were very challenging to put together!), played Whale and Plankton, put together a humpback whale calf skeleton (even as a baby they are large at about 5-6m long!), played whale bingo, made a whale blow pattern craft, and played whale pictionary.  Also, at the end of the day because the students were so good they had a chance to view the seahorses that just arrived and are in quarantine.  The seahorses are pretty cute with their little, curly tails!  Check out some pictures from our day below.   

 

For more information or to register your child for the remaining Young Explorer programs call (506) 529-1200 or email huntsman@huntsmanmarine.ca. 

A piece of North Atlantic Right Whale baleen.

Putting together a baby humpback jigsaw puzzle.

Getting crafty with whale blow patterns.

Shark Week - Young Explorers

We had a wonderful group of students attend our Shark Week Young Explorers program on August 7.  In fact it was the most popular program this summer with 36 students in attendance.  The students participated in activities such as observing and touching the skates (a relative of sharks), making great white shark bookmarks, playing sharks and herring outside (a couple of time…lol), drawing life-size sharks with sidewalk chalk, using balloons to learn about shark livers, and creating some great artwork about shark myths.  The students also had a chance to watch the seals being feed, play in the invertebrate touch pool, and check out some hagfish (very slimy!) in the university lab.  Below are some pictures from the day.

For more information or to register your child for the remaining two Young Explorer programs call (506) 529-1200 or email huntsman@huntsmanmarine.ca. 

 

Learning about the skates.

The skates seemed to enjoy the attention.

Making bookmarks (and checking out the special visitor!).

Some sharks, like these dogfish, are small...

...but others, like the basking shark, are very large!

Using their creativity to illustrate some shark myths.

Sharks and herring!