Three Oaks Senior High 2019

This week on campus we welcomed a group of high students from PEI. While on campus the students were introduced to a various marine habitats and organisms, toured different departments of the Huntsman, and completed behaviour experiments with live creatures. Below are a few photos from their field course.

Exploring biological classification using a diversity of live marine organisms including sea stars, sponge, 

periwinkles, a brittle star,

sea anemones and more.

Creating a dichotomous key using seaweeds.

Studying the anatomy of a sea urchin using microscopes.

Conducting an experiment to determine if size affects the time it takes sea stars and urchins to flip right side up. Results: smaller sea stars were faster; sea stars were faster than urchins.

Testing the strength of echinoderms (common sea star, urchin, blood star & purple sunstar). The urchins were the strongest, with one holding 48x its own weight!!

Exploring the intertidal zone at low tide.

Hiding under the rocks the students found sea urchins,

tiny sea stars,

and sea slugs laying their eggs.

One group also found a soft shell clam and blue mussels.

On another beach the group searched for invasive green crabs. 

 

There was a great range in sizes from less than 2cm up to 6cm.

Data was gathered on the size and gender of each crab. The group found and marked 78 crabs in one hour.

One student even found a rock gunnel fish!

Exploring the ARC which houses a collection of preserved specimens from the North Atlantic.

There are even a few specimens from other locations.

Student got to see a number of deep sea fish including the dragon fish.

baby blue shark

Playing the very competitive game of plankton bingo! 

Does temperature affect the feeding rate of barnacles? What temperature is their optimum?

Toronto Waldorf School 2019

This week on campus we welcomed Grade 11 students from the Toronto Waldorf School. During this year end trip students are introduced to the local marine environment and the history of St. Andrews by-the-Sea. Below are a selection of photos from their week.

Identifying the creatures collected from the beach at low tide.

Some of the students found a rock gunnel fish!

Drawing a beautiful purple sunstar in the lab.

Boarding the Fundy Spray to collect marine invertebrates, plankton and data on the temperature & salinity of the water.

Safety briefing from Captain Gary before leaving the wharf.

Using fine mesh nets to collect plankton.

The collected plankton.

Studying the plankton in the lab.

View of the phytoplankton at 100x magnified.

Exploring the diversity of animals that live in the sediments on a muddy beach.

The students found many species, including clam worms and blood worms. Both of these worms are predators and have teeth for catching prey!

Searching for the invasive green crab.

Data is collected on the green crab size and gender. In 45 minutes the students found 150 green crabs!

Observing a live sea urchin.

View of the sea urchin under the microscope.

Drawing and labelling the external anatomy of the sea urchin.

Conducting an experiment to see if size affects the time it takes sea stars and urchins to flip right side up. 

Learning about the amazing life cycle of lobsters.

Getting ready to walk across the ocean floor at low tide to tour historic Ministers Island.

Ministers Island was the summer estate of Sir William Van Horne in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was responsible for the completion of the railway across Canada.

The bathhouse with a beautiful view of the fog over Passamaquoddy Bay. 

A new exhibit this year is Van Horne's model ship collection.

Presentation on marine debris.

Learning to make mats from repurposed fishing rope.

Beautiful mat!

Cutting up herring to feed the animals in the touch tank.

Creating art using lobster bands and shells collected from the beach.

One of the finished art pieces.

Touring the ARC; an ID lab and scientific museum of species from the North Atlantic.

Dragon fish. Many fish in the deep sea have very large teeth.

 

Juvenile blue shark

Deep sea shrimp. To deal with the lack of sunlight in the deep sea animals either have no eyes, tiny eyes or very large eyes.

Porbeagle shark head...did you sign the "kissing" chalkboard?