Friday 24 January 2014

Homeschoolers - Day 3

On Tuesday we welcomed 34 homeschooled students to the aquarium for the third session of the homeschoolers program.  We were pleasantly surprised to have six new students join us for the morning.

In the lab the Kindergarten through Grade 2 students got to learn about lobster anatomy while visiting with our 5 year old lobster, Pinchy, who is the same age as many of the students in the group.  Pinchy was a great helper in showing the students about crusher and pincher claws, how lobsters walk and ‘swim’, and demonstrating colour variations in lobsters.  At the end of the lab the students had the chance to make their very own colourful lobster craft.

The Grade 3-5 group had lots of fun in the lab constructing and testing deep sea soda cup landers.  When placed in the big tank of water the landers sunk to the bottom but then floated to the top when the water hit the Alka-Seltzer tablet in the ascent engine causing a chemical reaction between the powdered citric acid and sodium bicarbonate which produced carbon dioxide gas.  Some of the students tested ½ or ¼ of a tablet to see if it would take longer for the lander to surface.  I am anxious to hear if any of the students were able to make their landers work at home.

While in the lab the Grade 6+ students observed four different animals: a rock crab, a hermit crab, a green crab, and a barnacle.  The students learned that these animals are all arthropods, which means they have jointed legs and an exoskeleton.  The lab was filled with the giggles of the girls and the shouts of excitement from the boys while working with the crabs.  To finish off the lab we played a short game of Abiotic-Biotic Pictionary.  It was a hit! 

While not in the lab the students watched the movie Encountering Sea Monsters in the theatre and had worksheets to complete while exploring the aquarium.

I look forward to our next session in February!

Pinchy the lobster!

Lobster craft - I chose blue!

Soda cup lander ready to explore the deep sea.

Green crab - boy, they were active!

The rock crabs just wanted to hide.

1 comment:

  1. We were unable to make it to the first two sessions, but my kids absolutely LOVED this day!!! I had one in each age group, and they were all excited to share what they learned on the trip home. Looking forward to February's Day at the Museum.

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