Young Explorer Day - Microscopic Life 2018

Yesterday the theme of the Young Explorer program was Microscopic Life. Our day was all about investigating the amazing microscopic creatures that live in a drop of seawater. The participants learned to use a microscope, played plankton bingo, collected plankton along the shore, explored the beach, made food chains and matched adult marine animals to their planktonic larvae. We finished the day with small touch tanks filled with animals that start their life as plankton.

Learning to use a microscope.

View of the plankton sample at 40x magnification.

Collecting plankton along the shore.

Exploring to see what animals live on the beach, a green crab.

Rock gunnel fish.

Taking a look at a jelly.

White cross jelly.

Sea urchin.

Lunch time fun on the zip line,

in the outdoor classroom and

playing the drums.

Making a food chain.

Phytoplankton is eaten by zooplankton (a copepod) which is eaten by a right whale.

Did you know that lots of animals in the aquarium start their life in the plankton layer?

Common sea stars do.

The students really enjoyed looking at the plankton using the microscopes. Some of them mentioned that they have microscopes at home. Here are instructions for an easy plankton net that can be made with a pop bottle and some panty hose. Plankton can be collected along the surface of saltwater or freshwater and is amazing to observe.

We are looking forward to the remaining Young Explorer days this summer, as well as the Advanced Explorer days for ages 11-15 and Jeunes Explorateurs, a French program for ages 5-11. Information and online registration for all these programs can be found on our website.