Intro to Marine Bio - Day 4

Barb met with the students again this morning to make art and biology connections.  The students worked making paint and wax prints of their favourite marine animals.  Many of us enjoyed the wax print technique so much that we plan to try it at home.  Thanks Barb!

While our art work was drying we conducted an experiment to test if size affects the flipping rate of sea stars and sea urchins.  The students learned the joys and frustrations of working with live animals!

For the afternoon we focused on invasive species.  First with a brief presentation and then marking and gathering data on the invasive green crabs on a local beach.  In about an hour and a half we found and marked 159 crabs.

This evening the students are screen printing t-shirts to keep as a souvenir of their time spent learning about marine biology at the Huntsman and all the great friendships they have made this week.

Having fun making prints.

Sea stars were a popular choice for the wax prints.

Using the iron to transfer the wax to the paper.

The end results were pretty cool.

Gathering sea stars of different sizes to conduct the experiment.

Sea star acrobatics.

This urchin is almost finished flipping.

Plotting the results on the board.

On the hunt for invasive green crabs.

We found a number of female crabs with eggs.

Marking the crabs with nail polish.

That's an interesting way to carry a crab.

A couple of marked crabs.

The biggest crab of the day, which was 8 cm diameter.