Turner Fenton Secondary School – Day 4

Today I wish that our blog had smell-o-vision so that everyone could experience the lovely smell that fish dissection brings to the lab!  All joking aside, this morning the students dissected a number of different fish species they had collected while on our research vessel, including flounder and hake and some sturgeon from the fish farm they visited yesterday.  They first identified their fish and then studied its external anatomy to get an idea where it lives in the water column and what it might eat.  At the end of the lab they opened up their fish to identify the organs and then opened the stomach to see what their fish had been eating.  Hopefully there isn’t fish for lunch!

The smell for this afternoon’s activity should be much more pleasing as the students are heading to The Chocolate Museum in St. Stephen to learn how chocolates are made and enjoy all of the tasty Ganong chocolate samples.  Wonder if they will bring any back for their wonderful instructors?    

Which flounder is it??

Sturgeon

Mackerel gills...very cool!

Opening up one of the sturgeon.

His last meal was little shrimp.

Yummm!  Ganong chocolates!

Turner Fenton Secondary School – Day 3

Yesterday the students had a full day of labs and field excursions.  While the last group went out on the research boat in the morning the other two groups studied invertebrates in the lab and conducted a short behaviour experiment with the sea stars and urchins.  The outcome of their experiments showed that sea stars definitely flip faster than sea urchins.  In fact, quite a few of the large urchins didn’t even flip at all.  Ahh, the joys of working with live animals!

Highlights from the last boat trip include catching an octopus, tasting scallops and shrimp caught fresh from the ocean, and seeing all of the large lobsters collected in the fish trawl.  The little octopus was taken to the aquarium where it was happily eating little crabs and awaiting a tank to calls its home.   

After lunch we headed out to see a local sturgeon aquaculture facility, where the fish are being grown for caviar.  Unfortunately, there were no tasty samples on this tour but it was neat to see all of the different coloured sturgeon and learn more about these prehistoric fish.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve, where the students explored Sam Orr’s Pond and hiked the trail out to Berry Point.  At the pond the students used dip nets to see what was living in these unique ponds.  They collected little green crabs, a small jelly fish, sticklebacks and little shrimp.  The bus ride back to the Huntsman was very quiet…I think we tired them out!     

To finish the day the teachers set up a campfire for the students, where they got to make ‘octopus’ dogs and roast marshmallows for s’mores.  Sounds pretty tasty! 

Mud star collected while on the research vessel.

Beautiful drawings during the invertebrate lab.

Upside down sea urchin (note the white teeth in the middle that form a star pattern.)

Exploring the sturgeon aquaculture facility.

Sturgeon!

Hiking at Caughey-Taylor.

Exploring at Sam Orr's Pond.

Turner Fenton Secondary School – Day 2

Brrr!  The students awoke to a chilly day here at the Huntsman; they are not only learning about marine biology but also how to dress for the weather in the Maritimes!

Today the second group of students headed out on the research vessel to conduct a plankton tow, scallop drag and fish trawl.  They had a fairly successful trip and even caught a squid, which has now found a home in the aquarium!  Pretty cool find. 

One of the other groups spent the morning learning about plankton, lobsters and the tides while the third group studied the animals collected on the first boat trip.  They did some drawings of the invertebrates and learned the names and then conducted an experiment with the sea stars and the urchins.      

This afternoon we headed out to a muddy beach with our shovels and buckets in search of the all the different creepy, crawly creatures that live in the sediment.  The students did great, finding a diversity of worms, including ribbon, red-lined, and bamboo.  The best worm find of the day goes to one of the teachers who found a blood worm that was about 75cm long!  Wow, don’t want to mess with the teeth on that worm!

This evening the students will meet in the lab to learn about seaweeds.  Bet they will be surprised to find out that some of their favourite foods, including ice cream and coffee cream contain seaweed!  Yum, seaweed!

Below are some pictures from today’s excursions.    

A rock crab posing for the students.

Which invertebrate will we choose?

Drawing a sea star

 .

Looking for the sea urchin's pedicellaria.

 

Happily digging in the mud!

The longest worm of the day!

Turner Fenton Secondary School – Day 1

Last night about midnight a group of students and teachers from Ontario descended on campus after a 17 hour bus trip.  They quickly got settled at Needler Hall in preparation for their first big day at the Huntsman. 

This morning one group of the students headed out on our research vessel, the Fundy Spray to collect plankton, invertebrates and fish to be studied throughout the week.  Even though the day was overcast they still had a great trip with calm water and lots of new animals to learn about.  They quickly learned that a fish trawl doesn’t just collect fish but also lobsters!  

The other students took advantage of the new lab in the aquarium to learn about plankton, the base of the marine food chain.  They also learned about lobsters and the high tides of the Bay of Fundy in the aquarium’s new theatre.

This afternoon the group headed out to Indian Point at low tide to explore a rocky intertidal zone.  Which will be a great comparison for tomorrow’s muddy beach! 

To finish the afternoon the students had a tour of the new Fundy Discovery Aquarium, where they played in the touch tank, watched Loki and Snorkel, the harbour seals eat their supper and pick up some souvenirs at the gift shop.  

Tomorrow has the chance of rain so we should get to see everyone's colourful raingear!

   

Preparing a slide of fresh plankton.

Pumpkin, our lobster model of the day!

Learning why the Bay of Fundy has such high tides.

 

Toad crab in the touch pool.

Sea star collected on the boat trip.

Millidgeville North School

Today at the aquarium we welcomed a group of grade 6 and 7 students from Millidgeville North School.  After a bit of a difficult trip from Saint John due to road construction they arrived safe and sound.  Throughout the day the students all had the opportunity to tour the aquarium, play in the touch tank, study plankton in the lab, and get up close and personal with the crabs.  Below are a couple of pictures from their visit.

Green crab!

Enjoying the seals.

Everyone taking pictures of the big salmon.

Plankton bingo...

...look what one of the students found!

Twitter

Want to stay up-to-date with what’s happening at the Fundy Discovery Aquarium and the Huntsman?  Follow us on Twitter @FundyAquarium.

Tweet from May 16:

Sea lice research is one of the many projects being worked on here at the Huntsman.

Tweet from May 11:

Getting ready for some of the summer theme weeks. Be sure to visit to see the finished product.

Eastport Elementary

This morning we welcomed to the aquarium the Kindergarten through Grade 3 students from Eastport Elementary.  Upon arrival the students watched Snorkel and Loki eat their herring breakfast and then had a tour of the aquarium with Janie.  After having fun and getting wet touching all of the animals in the touch pool the students joined Meagan and I in the lab to learn about harbour seals.  The students acted out being mother and pup seals listening for each other on the beach, mimicked the actions of seals in the wild, and made a harbour seal life cycle sheet.  We even tried to imitate the sheep-like sound that a harbour seal pup makes but wow that is a hard sound to make!

Thank you to the great students, teachers and parents of Eastport Elementary for your visit!

Super Snorkel!

Learning about harbour seal pups.

Riverdale School

Today we had the pleasure of working with the students from the Riverdale School from Northampton.  Throughout the day all of the students toured the aquarium, viewed Snorkel and Loki having their breakfast, learned about lobsters and tides, and spent some time in our new lab.    

I started the day with the youngest students.  We had fun observing all of the different fish species that live in the aquarium while learning about camouflage. The students really liked the skates that camouflage by burying themselves in the sand and the sea raven that has fleshy tabs on its face to hide in the seaweed.

After we all had a beautiful lunch outside in the sun I was joined in the lab by the grade 7-9 students.  They enjoyed naming their sea stars and urchins while coaching them to flip over (I think Puffball the urchin was the most interesting name choice of the day!).  The students were testing if the diameter of the animal affects how quickly it can right itself.  Some of the sea stars and urchins were really fast taking less than a minute to flip, while there were also a couple of stars that were in a race to see which one was slower; the slowest taking over 20 minutes to flip!    

The last activity of the day for the grade 10-12 students was playing a game of plankton bingo in the lab.  The competition was pretty brisk with quite a few students seeing at least 10 different species of plankton in their drop of water, while the winner spotting 19!  I think he was very happy to get a sticker for his prize!   

Thank you to all of the Riverdale students, teachers and chaperones for a wonderful day.  We hope you enjoyed your day at the Fundy Discovery Aquarium!    

Sturgeon

Snorkel and Loki had lots of observers for their breakfast.

Sea star acrobatics!

Isn't it amazing what lives in one drop of water?!

Summer hours at the Aquarium

Summer hours at the Fundy Discovery Aquarium start today!  The aquarium will be open 10a.m. to 5p.m. seven days a week until the fall.  Check out the education page of the website for information about fun summer courses and programs being offered at the aquarium, www.huntsmanmarine.ca.

M. Gerald Teed Memorial School

Today some of my touch tank friends and I visited the excited students at the M. Gerald Teed Memorial School in Saint John.  Throughout the day the Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students all had a chance to learn about and touch the animals that I had brought with me.  The favourite animals of the day were the sea stars, the crabs and the sea cucumbers.  But the animal that caused the most “ewwws” from the students was the slimy moon snail!

Thank you to all the students for being gentle with the animals.  They are all safely back in the touch tank at the aquarium awaiting your next visit!  

Enjoying the animals up close!

Toad crab

Scallop...be careful they might 'spit' at you!

Sea star

Green crab with eggs.

Having fun touching the live animals!

Huntsman Facebook Page

Check out the Huntsman Marine Science Centre’s facebook page, www.facebook.com/HuntsmanMarineScienceCentre, for updates on education programs and activities at the Fundy Discovery Aquarium.   

Essex Agricultural and Technical School – Day 3

Today we donned our raingear and boots to head out in the misty rain to Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve (Sam Orr’s Pond) for the morning.  This is a special location as it contains two brackish ponds that only receive saltwater on the very high tides.  Due to this, the water is allowed to warm up and these ponds are home to a number of animals, including quahogs, which are found nowhere else in the area.  The preserve is also special as it is composed of freshwater, brackish and saltwater environments.

To sample what is living in this unique location we brought along buckets, dip nets and a seine.  Some of the species the students found included mummichogs, fourspine sticklebacks, mysid shrimp and a sand shrimp.  While along the trail they also saw signs of squirrels and heard chickadees, a belted kingfisher and a loon. 

This afternoon the students had a tour of an aquaculture facility where sturgeon are being raised for caviar.  Too bad but there was no taste testing!  The students then headed into St. Andrews to explore and visit some of the shops.

This evening, as their last activity on campus, the students will be conducting behaviour experiments with some of the invertebrates that they collected earlier in the week.    

Thank you for the Essex group for a wonderful visit.  Have a safe trip home tomorrow!

Who can catch more fish?  The students with the dip nets...

or with the seine net?

Some of the catch.

Along the trail.

Sturgeon at the aquaculture facility.