Royal West - Day 2

Today students from Royal West Academy began the day in the lab identifying different types of seaweed.  Students used a dichotomous key to help in the identification. Later in the morning students studied the anatomy of the Green Sea Urchin. They drew and labelled parts of the urchin including the mouth, the madreporite, tube feet, spines and pedicellariae. 
  After lunch the group was out at Holey Point to start collecting data for their zonation project.  Students used a transect line and quadrat to help them collect information pertaining to the topography of the beach as well as the living things found there, such as any animals or seaweeds. This evening students will create posters to highlight their findings and these will be presented to the group on Saturday morning.

 

Students work to identify and name the various types of seaweed.

 

Here a student is using a dissection microscope to get a closer look and the surface of the Green Sea Urchin.

 

A look through the microscope at the urchin. You can see the longer primary spines as well as the shorter secondary spines. These are used for defence.

 

Here two students measure out the distance between their quadrats.

 

Some groups found Green Crabs along the beach.

 

Each group worked along a different section of the beach so that their data could potentially be compiled into a more detailed analysis of the topography of the entire beach.