Ashbury College 2018

On campus this week we had students that travelled from Ashbury College in Ottawa. The students have been very busy exploring the bay in the field and in the lab. Here are a few photos from their busy week of marine biology.

Exploring the beach at low tide.

Searching under rocks for live animals.

Seastars!

Identifying plankton collected while on the research vessel.

View through the microscope at 40x magnification.

Sorting through the items collected using the benthic drag.

Sea spider

Brittle star

Jonah crab

Purple sunstar

Identifying the invertebrates collected while in the field.

The students travelled by ferry to Grand Manan to go whale watching with Sea Watch Tours.

There were lots of fin whales.

Shearwater

Puffins

Grey seals

Experimenting with live echinoderms.

Does size affect the flipping rate?

Visiting the St. Andrews Bird Banding Station.

Black-and-white warbler that already had a band.

Checking the fat reserves.

Banding a Swainson's Thrush.

Does temperature affect the feeding rate of barnacles?

Drawing and describing sponge.

Sponge spicules at 100x magnification.

Rohan Woods School 2018

This week we had the pleasure of introducing a group of students from the Rohan Woods School in St. Louis, Missouri to the Bay of Fundy and marine biology. Below are a few pictures from their week exploring the ocean habitats around the Huntsman Marine Science Centre and St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

Aboard the Huntsman research vessel to collect animals and plankton from the bay. 

View through the microscope of phytoplankton and zooplankton at 40x magnification.

Conducting an experiment in the lab with live sea urchins and sea stars.

Does size affect their flipping rate?

Whale watching with Quoddy Link Marine. This is the blow from the humpback whale. 

The fluke (tail) of a humpback whale. Each humpback has a unique pattern on the underside of their fluke that can be used to identify an individual.

Exploring a muddy beach at low tide.

The students found soft-shell clams.

Clam worms have a beautiful iridescent colour. 

Red-lined worms have a short proboscis.

Searching for the invasive green crab.

Data is collected on the size and gender of each crab. This one is a female. The students found 76 crabs and only 14 were females.

Learning about the anatomy of fish through art.

What does the shape of the tail tell you about the speed of the fish?

What does the placement of the mouth tell you about where and what the fish eats? 

Young Explorer Day - Seabirds 2018

Yesterday's Young Explorer program was all about seabirds. We started the day by using field guides to identify seabird specimens. The young explorers then described their bird and drew a picture of it. We continued by making a craft to focus in on the arctic tern. This species of seabird makes the longest ever known annual migration, travelling from the Arctic to Antarctica!

To learn about the different beak shapes of birds we played the game Eating Like a Seabird. We also played a game to learn about seabird eggs.

The Young Explorers finished the day making a craft using migration data collected by tagging greater shearwaters in the Bay of Fundy. These seabirds migrate from the Bay of Fundy to the remote Tristan da Cunha islands in the south Atlantic where they breed.

Studying seabird specimens.

Arctic Tern ready for migration!

Which beak is the best?

Migrating shearwater craft.

The next program we have coming up at the aquarium is Read to the Seals, during Science Literacy Week in September. Please visit our website for information about how to register for this free program.

Young Explorer Day - Whales 2018

The Young Explorer program yesterday was all about whales. The group had fun touching the bones, baleen and teeth of the whales of the Bay. These items helped us to learn that whales are vertebrates and mammals. The explorers then made a craft showing the different blow patterns of a humpback whale and a right whale.

After lunch we took advantage of the low tide to explore the intertidal zone. There were lots of green crabs and periwinkles found and then released by the group. While outside we also used meter sticks and chalk to mark out the sizes of different whales species on the sidewalk. It was surprising to see just how long some of the whales can grow!

Back inside we did an experiment using string and a spoon to learn about echolocation. We finished the day with a few rounds of the game right whale and copepods. 

The last Young Explorer program for the summer will be next Wednesday, August 22 and the theme is seabirds. We also have the last French program of the summer on Tuesday, August 21. 

We are looking forward to hosting a new event for Science Literacy Week in September called, Read to the Seals. Children will have the chance read to Snorkel and Loki in a private room that looks directly into their habitat. Register soon as space is limited.