Hey young marine scientist! Are you ready to explore underwater communities and bring them to life?! You’re in for a special treat! Classroom activities involve the nurturing of sea monkeys in student-built water tanks. Students will care for their own tank and monitor the well-being of their tiny friends!
Time to learn about some bigger sea critters. You will be in on choosing a theme for habitats, such as tropical, reef, tidal pool, or freshwater paradise. As you help plan for and assemble the aquariums, you will become fluent in what constitutes an ecosystem. What fish are aggressive and what fish are community members? What are the differences in anatomy of freshwater and saltwater fish, and what are characteristics of aquarium plants that thrive in different conditions and why? You will get your creative juices flowing, designing your own renderings of dream aquariums for home and museum display. You may create touch tanks, as well. Through hands-on work, teens will gain substantial cross-disciplinary scientific knowledge, all while having fun! Our young scientists will create several ecosystems. You might take a freshwater ecosystem, filling it to the brim with little guys you’ve seen in the real world. There is so much to learn about these creatures you might usually pass right by. For example, did you know that a crab is an omnivore? They’re known to be little scavengers, eating everything in their paths. And have you ever thought about the way a scallop swims? They open and close their shells and propel themselves backwards! That sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it?
