Intro to Marine Biology - Day 2

Last evening the students had the opportunity to study the plankton that we had collected on the boat earlier in the day.  They played plankton bingo and saw lots of different species of phytoplankton and zooplankton species.  It was a really cool sample!

Today we had a wonderful sunny day to explore the beach first thing this morning.  The students found so many exciting animals including sea stars, urchins, sponge, sand shrimp, green crabs, hermit crabs, and a rock gunnel fish.  We then ventured into the aquarium for a tour and to see the seal feeding.  The students were pretty keen on the touch tanks, including the skate touch tank!  

After lunch the group headed into the lab to have a closer look at the all the animals they had collected today and yesterday.  They learned how to identify the animals using field guides and dichotomous keys.  We then went back into the aquarium to study the connection between art and biology.  

This evening we used the microscopes to study the anatomy of echinoderms such as sea stars and urchins.  The students also did some wonderful biological drawings of their specimens.