Touchstone Community School

Today we had eight, excited grade 5 students from the Touchstone Community School in Rothesay visit the Huntsman for a day filled with marine biology. They started the day learning all about plankton and its importance at the base of the marine food chain.  The students were amazed to see all the microscopic plants and animals that live in the Bay of Fundy.  They had fun playing plankton bingo, with one student finding 14 different species of plankton!  Great job!  

Next the group had the chance to work with the live invertebrates including green crabs, hermit crabs and scallops.  One student even found a pregnant green crab in the tank in the lab.  She was pretty feisty! 

After a quick lunch the students conducted an experiment to see how size affected the flipping rate of sea stars and urchins.  Most of the animals were pretty fast except for one sea star that took over eight minutes to flip back over.  The students had a taste of the joys and frustrations of using live animals for experiments! 

To finish off the day everyone bundled up and headed for the beach to explore.  The group did really well in their hunt, finding a couple of green crabs, a clam, mussels, periwinkles, sideswimmers and a blood worm.

Below are a some pictures from today. 

A hermit crab posing nicely for the students. 

Drawing a scallop.

A sea star on the move.

Who is hiding under this rock?

Crestwood Preparatory College – Day 3

Today the Crestwood students started their day at Holey Point collecting data for their big zonation project.  Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes on the beach the misty rain turned to a down pour, but the students were troopers and continued collecting data along their transect lines until they reached the bottom of the beach.  Hopefully, everyone can decipher their rain soaked data sheets enough to put together their posters.

This afternoon the students toured the aquarium where they enjoyed seeing the seals and touching the animals in the two touch pools.  They also toured the Atlantic Reference Centre or ARC (what a fitting place to be this blustery, rainy day).  The ARC is a research museum for Canadian marine life that houses preserved specimens of invertebrates and fish.  Students were able to view specimens of deep sea creatures, such as angler fish, a gulper eel and a viper fish.  And as is tradition with the ARC tour the students had the opportunity to kiss the head of a porbeagle shark.  The group I was with may have set a new record with five students kissing the shark head!  Gross!

Check out some pictures from today’s activities.

Zonation in the rain.

Having fun at the touch pool.

Lunchtime for the sea cucumber.

  

Baby swordfish at the ARC.

Kissing the shark head!

Crestwood Preparatory College – Day 2

What a great morning the Crestwood students had today.  In the beautiful sunshine they visited two different beaches to explore and collect specimens for their labs.  First they headed out with buckets and shovels to a muddy beach in search of marine worms.  Were they ever lucky!  As they neared the water they noticed lots of clam worms swimming in the water.  On closer inspection they realized it was the male worms releasing their gametes into the water.  This is something quite special to see as it only happens in the early spring.  After being amazed by the diversity of the worms the students boarded the bus and went to the other end of town to see what lives at Indian Point, a rocky beach.  They had a great time searching under the rocks and seaweed for crabs, urchins, and sea stars. 

This afternoon the students put all of the animals and knowledge they collected over the past two days to use conducting behaviour experiments.  They are divided into groups with each doing one experiment they will then present to everyone on Saturday.  All of the experiments are testing how changes in one environmental factor such as temperature, salinity, light or wave action affects a certain group of invertebrates. 

This evening the students will have a short lab identifying some of the seaweeds they collected this morning at Indian Point.  This is all in preparation for their zonation field study tomorrow morning.  They will also show how art and biology are connected while working on posters for their presentations on Saturday.    

Below are some pictures from today.      

Happily digging in the mud for worms (be careful, some bite!)

Clam worms (one is spawning).

Dogwinkles and their eggs.

Exploring a tide pool at Indian Point...great morning!

Timing a seastar flipping.

Watching barnacles feed.

Crestwood Preparatory College – Day 1

Today marked day 1 at the Huntsman for a group of grade 11 students from Crestwood Preparatory College.  After arriving very early this morning after a 19 hour bus trip from Toronto these students were excited and eager to start exploring the marine environment. 

Some of the students started at the base of the marine food chain viewing phytoplankton and zooplankton under the microscope.  They learned about copepods (microscopic animals) and how the North Atlantic right whale uses their baleen to filter these abundant animals from the ocean.  Imagine how many copepods a 17 meter right whale would have to eat to survive!

The highlight of the day for most of the students was going on our research vessel, the Fundy Spray into Passamaquoddy Bay to collect specimens for use in the lab.  The students collected plankton and invertebrates such as purple sunstars, hermit crabs, sand dollars, sea peaches, and brittle stars.  They also had the chance to use equipment such as a secchi disk and a salinometer, to record different parameters of the saltwater which these animals inhabit.  Most of the students were brave and took in the whole Fundy Spray experience by tasting the raw scallop; some even had seconds!  It doesn’t get any fresher!      

Currently the students are drawing and identifying the animals they collected while on the boat.  One of the best parts about their field course at the Huntsman is working and interacting with the live animals; seeing how the move, feeling their texture, and learning about the great diversity of our local marine environment.

This evening the students have free time to check out St. Andrews or catch up on sleep in preparation for the sampling they will be doing at two different beaches tomorrow.

Until tomorrow!

Viewing the amazing world of plankton.

Heading out in all their nice and clean gear (it won't be clean for long!).

Collection from the bottom.

Purple sunstar.

SeaWords - Spring 2012

Check out the latest edition of the education department's newsletter, SeaWords on our website, www.huntsmanmarine.ca/Spring_2012.pdf.

There's lots of great content including:
     - an article about the hands-on Grade 6 Ocean Discovery Program,
     - exciting new educational opportunities at the aquarium,
     - summer activities and courses at the Huntsman for all ages,
     - facts about prickly green sea urchins, and
     - the procedure for the Right Side Up lab.

Royal West Academy - Day 4

Yesterday the students concluded their afternoon testing the strength of sea star and urchin tube feet.  The winning species was the urchin!  The students were amazed by how much weight both animals could resist.  One of the urchins resisted almost 47 times its own weight!  

This morning the students are working on their formal invertebrate behaviour experiments.  These experiments look at how environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, light and wave action can affect the behaviour of specific invertebrates.  For most of the students this is the first time they have experimented with live animals.  They are learning how interesting and frustrating this can be but also how to treat the animals ethically.  All their animals will be alive at the end of the experiments.

This afternoon the students will venture into St. Andrews for some down time before presenting their zonation and behaviour experiments this evening.  Then they will pack up and head back to Quebec with sea stars and crabs filling their dreams on the bus.

Thank you for the teachers and students of Royal West Academy!  Come back and visit us again!  

    

Osmoregulation experiment in progress.

Hermit crabs and light.

Flipping sea stars.

Barnacles feeding.

Royal West - Day 3

Yesterday the students had a jam-packed day of hands-on work in the lab, presentations and a field excursion.

After finishing their invertebrate identification lab the students enjoyed the new aquarium theatre while listening to presentations on the deep sea and salmon aquaculture.  Some of the deep sea creatures that piqued their interest were the Atlantic hagfish, which can produce enough slime at one time to fill a 2-gallon bucket (gross!) and the viperfish, which has fangs that are so long it can’t even close its mouth.  It is amazing what can be found lurking in the deep sea! 

Late in the afternoon the students got all geared up in their colourful boots and raingear for the Indian Point trip.  The students eagerly searched under the rocks and seaweeds to see which animals were lying in wait for the tide to rise again.  They were having so much fun we had a hard time getting them back on the bus to leave for supper!

The students had a quick seaweed identification lab in the evening and then had fun eating s’mores, singing songs and telling ghost stories around the campfire.  From what they told me today, I think some of them had a hard time getting to sleep after all the sugar and scary stories!

This morning low tide was 6:26am so the students were up bright and early to conduct their zonation data collection at 8am.  Currently they are comparing the strength of sea stars to urchins.  Which species is stronger?  Stay tuned until tomorrow! 

Debating the pros and cons of salmon aquaculture.

Colourful at Indian Point.

Identifying seaweed.

Measuring elevation at Holey Point.

Learning all about echinoderms.

Royal West Academy - Day 2

Yesterday 47 excited grade 10 students from Royal West Academy in Montreal, Quebec arrived at the Huntsman for four days of hands-on marine biology.  After stashing their luggage and having a quick breakfast they meet in Anderson House to get briefed for their day.  One group of students added extra layers for their trip on the Huntsman research vessel, Fundy Spray, while the rest of the students went to the aquarium for a tour or to work in the plankton lab.  Throughout the day each of the students had the opportunity to do all three activities, while getting acquainted with the animals inhabiting the local marine environment. 

After asking the students their favourite parts of the day the most popular answers were going on the research vessel and sorting through the animals that were collected with the scallop drag, touching the live animals such as the sea stars in the touch pool at the aquarium, and viewing the harbour seals Loki and Snorkel.

This morning the students are learning about classification while interacting with the live marine invertebrates they collected yesterday.  Seeing the animals moving is definitely a highlight for the students during this lab.  

Below are some of the pictures from yesterday. 

       

Plankton!!

Loki loves to see the students.

Sorting through the scallop drag collection.

Blood star

Vincent Massey Elementary (part 2)

This afternoon I packed up some live sea stars and urchins for a visit to the grade 6 class at Vincent Massey Elementary.  We had a great afternoon determining if size effects how quickly the sea stars and urchins can flip over.  The students’ results showed that the smaller ones are usually faster and the sea stars are faster than the urchins.  In fact some of the urchins didn’t flip at all!   

We also discussed some of the methods and technologies that scientists use to research the ocean.  The students studied pictures that were taken during a research cruise in the Gulf of Maine and determined the pros and cons of using a camera or campod to study biodiversity.  They also learned that ROVs aren’t just used for researching biodiversity but also by industry to study the environmental conditions under aquaculture cages.

Thank you again to the great students in Mrs. Harrison’s class for a wonderful afternoon!       

For more information on The Grade 6 Ocean Discovery Program visit our website, www.huntsmanmarine.ca/html/grade_6.html.

Students learned the madreporite (white spot) must be covered by water for the sea star to flip.

An urchin on the move.

Recording the number of animal species in the picture.

Are there any arthropds?

Laval Liberty – Day 4

Today the Laval Liberty students started off their day conducting behaviour experiments with some of the different invertebrate species they had collected throughout their stay at the Huntsman.  There were four different experiments being completed in the labs, with each pair of students completing one experiment.  The four experiments were: the affect of different salinities on a green crab, common sea star and seaweed; how different crab species react to light; how temperature affects the feeding rate of barnacles; and if size affects the flipping rate of common sea stars.  Students used the knowledge and information they had gained throughout their field course, such as the temperature and salinity of the water in the bay, how far the light penetrates into the water, and in which habitat each of the animals was collected, to help them interpret their results. 

Currently the students have been given a much deserved break to explore the town of St. Andrews, enjoy the sun, and do some souvenir shopping. 

   

Thank you to the teachers and students of Laval Liberty High School for being a wonderful group!  Safe travels as you head home to Laval this evening!

A toad crab awaiting his turn under the light.

  

A green crab preparing for a dip in the salty water.

Laval Liberty - Day 3

Yesterday the Laval Liberty students finished up the afternoon with a presentation on the aquaculture of Atlantic salmon in our local area.  They had a great discussion on the pros and cons of the industry and learned a little bit about the process it takes to grow the salmon that arrive in the grocery store.  In the evening the students completed a seaweed lab and learned that lots of their favourite foods including ice cream and coffee cream include seaweed (look for carrageenan on the ingredient list).  Yummy, seaweed!

Today the students awoke to a grey and drizzly morning so they donned their rubber boots and raingear to head to Holey Point to gather data on the zonation of the intertidal environment.  The students did great counting the animals and seaweeds in their quadrate but they were definitely happy to get back to Anderson House to get warmed up during lunch!    

This afternoon the students studied echinoderms (marine animals with spiny skin) in the lab.  They focused on the green sea urchin and all of its amazing external anatomy such as the madreporite, tube feet and pedicellariae.  After learning how the urchins function the students completed two behaviour experiments.  First they flipped the urchins over to see how long it would take them to flip back and then they conducted strength experiments.  The strongest urchin could resist about 55 times its weight!  Wow, that is an impressive animal!  An interesting occurrence for one group was when their urchin began releasing sperm into the water.  Not something you see every day!        

This evening the students will take the data they gathered during the zonation lab and put it into a poster they will present to the group tomorrow.  Tracey and I always find it very interesting to see the themes and artwork the groups come up with to present their data.  Some of these posters will eventually end up on the walls of the Huntsman education labs.

Exciting seaweed!

Searching for life during the zonation lab...

...at Holey Point.

The urchin releasing its sperm.

Getting a look at the urchin madreporite up close.

Testing the urchin's strength (at the end the bag was completely full of rocks!).

Laval Liberty – Day 2

Yesterday marked the arrival of 47 grade 10 and 11 students from Laval Liberty High School.  They were excited to get started but a bit tired after traveling on a bus for over 10 hours from Laval, Quebec.  They were troopers though and throughout the day they each completed three activities; a lab to observe phytoplankton and zooplankton, a tour of the new Fundy Discovery Aquarium, and a trip on our research vessel, the Fundy Spray.   Some of them were even brave enough to try the snack option on the Fundy Spray, scallop fresh from the bottom!  Each activity opened their eyes to new animals that they had never seen before such as the microscopic copepods, sea peaches, and halibut and new experiences. 

Today we all donned our rubber boots and headed out to the intertidal zone (beach) at Indian Point.  It was a gorgeous morning and the students were very eager and found lots of animals hiding under the rocks and seaweed.  Some of the more amazing finds were tiny sea cucumbers, rock gunnel fish (no, they weren’t eels), and masses of pregnant green crabs!  After a group picture we headed back to campus for a yummy lunch of homemade soup, grill cheese sandwiches and green salad.

Currently the students are observing and drawing five different animals from those collected on the boat yesterday and on the beach today.  Some of the favourites are the scallops (yes, they will ‘spit’ at you!) and the green crabs (is it a boy or a girl?).

    

Below are some pictures from the past two days.

Students in the plankton lab (all wearing their Laval Libery hoodies!).

The scallop drag bring up animals from the bottom.

Zooplankton!

Green crab with eggs.

All the Laval Liberty students at Indian Point.

Deer Island Community School (part 2)

Today I caught the ferry at Letete and headed to Deer Island to visit the grade 5/6 students to complete their Ocean Discovery Program.  It was a pleasant crossing and I arrived at the school to a group of 10 students eager and excited to see what I had brought with me!

The students thoroughly enjoyed the flipping experiment with the sea stars and urchins.  Most of the animals flipped pretty quickly but our largest urchin took almost 20 minutes to flip over!  Even the teacher had fun, admitting that she had never seen a live urchin before today.  The students learned that sea stars and urchins are echinoderms, which means they have ‘spiny skin’ and that flipping is automatic as these animals have no brain.  The students finished their follow-up learning about the pros and cons of different technologies used to study the ocean.

Check out the pictures and videos below of the Deer Island students’  sea stars and urchins in action.      

For more information on The Grade 6 Ocean Discovery Program visit our website, www.huntsmanmarine.ca/html/grade_6.html.

An urchin completing its flip.

Almost over!

Urchin with its soft tube feet extended.