Young Explorer Day - Microscopic Life

Today the theme of the Young Explorer Wednesday program at the Aquarium was Microscopic Life. I love teaching people about plankton! We also had the opportunity to look at a few squid that had just hatched. Here is a video of one of the squid at 40x magnification. Note the chromatophores (pigment containing cells) changing shape. Below are some pictures of our adventures today.

Learning to use the microscope.

We spotted some copepods.

One of the recently hatched squid.

Where do plankton fit in the marine food chain?

Right whales eat copepods, which eat phytoplankton. 

Phytoplankton supports the base of the marine food chain.

Drawing coccolithophores.

 Here is a short video explaining coccolithophores.

Trying our hand at making new phytoplankton species.

The challenge is to sink slowly so they remain in the sunlight zone.

Next week will be our last Young Explorer Wednesday program of the summer. Our theme will be lobsters and their arthropod relatives.

Young Explorer Marine Biology Week

Every summer the Huntsman Fundy Discovery Aquarium offers Young Explorer Wednesdays and a Young Explorer Marine Biology Week. Today we finished up the Young Explorer week learning about plankton. Some of the other themes we covered during the week were the intertidal zone, the ocean, seals and the deep sea. Here are a few pictures from our fun week.

Exploring the intertidal zone.

The students found lots of crabs!

Identifying the animals they collected.

The students also found rock gunnel fish on the beach.

Preparing food for the touch tank.

Feeding the crabs, skates, flounder, rock gunnels, sea stars, lumpfish, eels and lobster in the touch tanks.

Squid eggs on the beach.

All the marine debris the students collected from the beach.

Making marine debris into art.

Experimenting to see how ocean currents are made.

Aquarium scavenger hunt.

How many pennies can your boat hold?

Napping harbour seals.

Making a deep sea lander.

Testing out their lander.

Exploring the ocean floor.

Collecting plankton.

Identifying plankton using the microscopes. 

Having fun playing outside.

We have a few more Young Explorer Wednesdays this summer where we will explore Microscopic Life on August 17 and Lobsters and their arthropod relatives on August 24.