Kennebunk High School - Final Day

This morning the Kennebunk students headed out with buckets and shovels in search of marine worms at a muddy intertidal zone.  It took quite a few holes being dug but the students were able to find 7 different species of worms on the beach, including blood worms, milky ribbon worms, and clam worms.  They were amazed to see the blood worm shooting out its proboscis when agitated.  Some of the other animals they found inhabiting the muddy beach were moon snails and sand dollars. 
 
To finish out the morning the group embarked on the great green crab hunt.  They help find, measure, and mark the invasive green crabs.  Some of the female students seemed to be crab whisperers and would come to the recorders with handfuls of crabs to be processed.  They did a really good job and marked over 100 crabs in under an hour.  

After a yummy lunch of fish and chips the students visited the lab for the last time to complete two invertebrate behaviour experiments.  Some of the students tested the effect that temperature has on the feeding rate of barnacles and others tested how size affects the flipping rate of the sea stars and sea urchins.  They did great and will process their data when they get back to school tomorrow.

We had a great time with the students and teachers from Kennebunk!  We hope to see you all again!

Searching for marine worms.

a clam worm and a blood worm

One of the crab whisperers.

Not all of the crabs were big.

Getting a beautiful green mark.

Flipping sea star.

Counting barnacles feeding.