Ottawa Catholic School - Day 2

Yesterday morning the students took a field trip to an intertidal zone on the other side of St. Andrews called Indian Point.  It was wonderful experience as there was a negative tide so some of the subtidal zone was also exposed.  Exploring the beach the students found green crabs, sea stars, urchins, sand dollars, scale worms, and lots more.

As the tide turned and pushed us back to shore we headed to the lab to identify the invertebrates we had collected while in the field and on the boat.  The students worked hard on their biological drawings and descriptions of each of the animals.

In the afternoon the students joined me in the theatre to watch a short video explaining the Bay of Fundy tides and then for a presentation on salmon aquaculture.  There was lots of questions during the presentation and great discussions regarding the pros and cons of this local industry.

For the remainder of the afternoon the students headed back to the lab to study a the totally marine group called echinoderms.  The students used microscopes to view some of the amazing external anatomy of sea urchins such as the madreporite and the pedicellariae.  The labelled drawings the students completed were amazing!  

In preparation for the whale watching trip to Grand Manan I met the students in the evening to go over how to identify the different whale species that visit the Bay of Fundy.  Also, Professor Emeritus Jack Terhune who is on campus working with the University of New Brunswick marine semester students spoke about his fascinating research with harp seals.  Some of his students were also on hand to answer questions for the group regarding their education and research.

Today the group is off to Grand Manan in search of whales.  Good luck!

The intertidal zone at Indian Point.

Hmmm...what is this we have found?

Sideswimmer

Lots of exposed urchins due to the negative tide.

Enjoying the field trip.

The students were fully engaged!

Wow, lots of crabs under that rock!

This crab was not interested in being picked up.

Seaweeds, periwinkles, sea stars, urchins and more under this rock.

One of the students found an old ink well on the beach.

Studying a sand dollar during the classification lab.

Cute little sea cucumber.

Anatomical drawings of a sea urchin.

Amazing to view the urchin using the microscopes.

Professor Emeritus Jack Terhune speaking to the 

students about his harp seal research.

All packed and off to Grand Manan for the night.