Yesterday I had 22 excited grade 6 students from Grand Manan Community School arrive at the Huntsman to take part in the Ocean Discovery Program. After their long ferry ride they were eager to touch the animals, use the microscopes and investigate the intertidal zone.
The focus of the grade 6 science Diversity of Life unit is the Phylum Arthropoda, so a large part of the Ocean Discovery Program is learning about different marine arthropods. The students started out looking at plankton and microscopic arthropods such as copepods. They were surprised at the abundance of the copepods on their slides and to find out the Plankton on SpongeBob is a copepod! The next activity took us outside to the intertidal zone. While searching under the rocks and seaweed the students found two species of arthropods, barnacles and sideswimmers, as well as lots of other interesting animals including a red-lined worm and mini sea stars. After a quick lunch the students were very excited to handle, describe and draw two species of arthropods, an Acadian hermit crab and a green crab. For the last arthropod activity of the day I talked to the students about lobsters and they really enjoyed getting to see Jaws, our live lobster friend.
Thank you to the students, teacher, and parent chaperones from Grand Manan for a great day exploring some of the marine arthropods of the Bay!
For more information on The Grade 6 Ocean Discovery Program visit our website, www.huntsmanmarine.ca/html/grade_6.html. Also, the Arthropod poster used during the program is for sale at the Fundy Discovery Aquarium gift shop.
Drawing copepods.
Searching the beach at Brandy Cove.
Describing the characteristics of a green crab.
Jaws!
The arthropod poster used during the program.
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