Lisgar Collegiate Institute & Colonel By Secondary School - 2019

This week on campus we hosted students from Lisgar Collegiate Institute and Colonel By Secondary School, both from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. The students had the opportunity to study a range of marine organisms from tiny plankton to huge baleen whales. They were exposed to different marine habitats and life on Grand Manan Island. Here are a few photos from their adventurous week.

On the first day everyone went on a Huntsman research vessel, the Fundy Spray. Depending on the tide it could be a steep walk!

Collecting marine invertebrates using the benthic or scallop drag.

Sorting through the animals collected from the bottom of the bay.

Blood stars and a common sea star.

Rock crab

Shrimp

Lots of scallops!

Phytoplankton collected using the fine mesh net.

Zooplankton collected using the coarse mesh net.

Viewing the live plankton.

Zooplankton & phytoplankton viewed at 40x magnification. Lots of copepods!

View at 100x magnification.

Visiting Captain Peter to learn about lobster fishing On Grand Manan Island.

Inside the museum at the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station.

Drawing, describing and identifying marine invertebrates in the classification lab.

The students were encouraged to study the diversity of the available animals. This dish contains a moon snail, purple sunstar and sponge.

brittle star

Did you see the sea cucumber move?!

How many eyes do each of these animals have? Hint, the answer is not zero.

Observations of a rock crab.

Getting a closer look at the external anatomy of a sea urchin.

We challenged students to find and draw the pattern on the urchin.

Exploring the animals that live in the intertidal zone.

 

Sea stars hiding under a rock in the lower intertidal zone. How many do you see?

Behaviour experiments: does size affect the flipping rate of sea stars?

Does temperature affect the flipping rate of urchins?

Does salinity affect the flipping rate of urchins?

Does temperature affect the feeding rate of barnacles?

Testing the strength of echinoderm tube feet.

Testing the reaction of crabs to light.

West Carleton, Sir Robert Borden & Earl of March Schools - 2019

This week on campus we had Grade 11 & 12 students from West Carleton, Sir Robert Borden & Earl of March Schools from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. We were very happy to welcome students from Sir Robert Borden High School for the first time!

The students were introduced to the diversity of the marine environment through the collection of live specimens in different habitats and observations in the lab. We were based in St. Andrews, with an overnight trip to Grand Manan Island. Below are some photos from our week. 

Research cruise on the Fundy Spray to collect live specimens and oceanographic data.

Gathering benthic invertebrates.

 

Sea stars and blood stars!

Counting and recording what we collected.

How do you tell the gender of a scallop? Female gonads are orange, males are white.

We caught a glimpse of the replica Santa Maria that was in port.

Plankton collected while on the boat.

Identifying and drawing plankton in the lab.

View of phytoplankton through the microscope at 100x magnification.

View at 40x magnification. In this view is copepods and also a brittle star larva. 

Beautiful day to head to Grand Manan Island on the ferry. The ferry is 1.5 hours.

Swallowtail Lighthouse greets us on the island. Students visited this lighthouse, which has been recently restored.

While whale watching we got to see the abandoned Gannet Rock Lighthouse. There were lots of seals in the water and on the seaweed! 

Lobster fishing 101 with Captain Peter.

Traps being prepared for the upcoming lobster season.

Creating a dichotomous key of seaweeds collected from the shore.

There was a competition to find the longest seaweed with the holdfast, stipe and blade.

Visiting the museum at the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station. Baleen whale jaw bones at the entrance.

Grey seal skeleton in the museum.

Humpback whale flipper bones.

Nice view of a herring weir as we departed the island.

Invertebrate classification lab using the live animals the students collected.

Presentation on the life cycle of a lobster.

Behaviour experiment: the effect of temperature on the feeding rate of barnacles.

Testing the strength of different echinoderms, including this sunstar.

Does size affect the flipping rate of sea urchins?

Bell ringer quiz to see how much they remember from the week.