Unit One Introduction to Marine Invertebrates

Unit One Introduction to Marine Invertebrates Activity 1 - Live Sea Animals . .3 Activity 2- Making an Undersea World . ..6 Objectives: To help students: Touch and identify common beach creatures such as sponges, jellyfishes, anemones, worms, crabs, barnacles, shrimps, amphipods, mollusks, sea stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers (Activity 1). Understand the meaning of “invertebrate”: a soft-bodied animal without bones (Activity 1). Talk to a diver and/or marine biologist and observe their equipment (Activity 2). Decorate the classroom like an undersea world (Activity 2). Train “animals”(paper bag puppets) for an underwater circus (Activity 2). 1 . -- ., ., -<:.y:: ,.‘. :,” ; . .* . ‘. ..* 7 .*. ‘. ---=j.‘.’ : , ’ . UNIT ONE: Introduction to Marine Invertebrates. The ideal way to approach the study of invertebrates in all their diversity is through observation of live animals. All living things can be classified as belonging to either the plant Activity 1 kingdom orthe animal kingdom. Vertebrates and invertebrates are Live Sea Animals the two major subdivisions of the animal kingdom. Vertebrates are animals with backbones: humans, horses, elephants, mice, fishes, etc. Invertebrates are animals without backbones: sponges, sea stars,insects, worms, jellyfishes. Ninety-five percent of all animal species are invertebrates. There is a great assortment of colors, shapes and sizes among invertebrates found in Alaskan waters. Lacking backbones, they have various ways of supporting their bodies. Some,such as ane- 1 mones, rely on the water itself to give them shape and support. Sponges have a support system of Background: needlelike structures, which form In teaching children about marine entwining mesh. Crabs, an biology, nothing compares in shrimps,and beach hoppers have external skeletons, or “exoskele- excitement and value to the observation of living creatures. On the tons, ‘I that must be shed as they coast, live sea animals can be grow. The skeletons of sea stars collected from the shore at low tide are composed of small plates; the plates of sea urchins and sand (rocky beaches have the most dollars are fused together to form diversity),under floating docks or The soft bodies of snails pier pilings, or from divers or a test. fishermen. A crab pot, old tire or and clams are encased in protec- rope, set offshore or hung from a tive shells that increase in size as dock, will often attract creatures. the animals grow. An animal skull works extremely well for bait. Use the information in Unit 2 to help with identification of your finds. Inland schools can obtain live animals from friends on the coast or parents visiting the ocean, or can order them sent air freight from biological supply companies. Plan to return the creatures alive to their homes on the shore after this activity. That way, there will always be animals for future Sea Weeks ! Vocabulary: The most important rule is to n keep the water cool at all . invertebrate times, which is necessary to l exoskeleton maintain a sufficient oxygen l sponge level. As soon as the water l jellyfish begins to lose its chill, * anemone return the pan to the refrig- l worm erator. Don’t use a metal l crab pan, which can corrode and l barnacle poison the animals. Most l shrimp intertidal animals are hardy, l amphipod but if one of yours becomes l mollusk sluggish, return it to the l univalve sea. It is best not to collect l bivalve sponges, which decay quick- . snail ly. l sea slug l nudibranch l clam l mussel l sea star l octopus l chiton l sea urchin l sand dollar l sea cucumber l sea squirt l habitat Materials: live sea creatures magnifying lenses or binocular 2. Build excitement about Sea microscopes with lights Week by encouraging students finger bowls to inspect and touch the animals. It is safe to gently Procedure: handle them. Jellyfishes may be touched on the bell but 1. Obtain the sea animals. should not be picked up, as Remember conservation! It is their tentacles, located on the important that live animals be underside, may sting. treated well and returned to their proper habitats. salt- 3. Write student questions about water aquariums are ideal these animals on the board as (use natural salt, sea water starting points for future or marine salt, available at studies. pet shops); but if none is available, animals can be kept for several days covered with 4. Introduce the word “inverte- paper towels dampened with brate” as meaning “soft- salt water, in wet seaweed, bodied animal with no bones.” or in a pan of salt water in Have the children find and the refrigerator. feel their own backbones. 4 5. Discuss the habits of inverte- Under duress, a hermit crab brates. Where are inverte- will sometimes jump out of its brates found? What are their shell. If this happens, put it needs? How can we help take quickly back in its saltwater care of them? (by being home so that its soft abdomen careful of them when we go to will be protected. Notice how the beach, by not stepping the fleshy abdomen is adapted on them, by filling in any at its tip to hang on to a clam holes we dig, by turning shell, and observe the loss of rocks back over after we look appendages on the abdomen. under them). Then place the empty shell next to the hermit crab, and 6. Set up the magnifying lenses watch how it examines the or binocular microscopes. shell and inserts its abdomen. Explain the purpose of the instruments and how to operate them. Place an animal in the finger bowl in salt water, turn on the light and focus. Use flashlights with the magnifying lenses. The beauty and strangeness under magnification are impressive. (Remember, how- ever, that the light produces heat that can warm the water and the animals, so turn the light off when you’re not using it.) Watch barnacles feeding with their feet. How does an amphipod move? Is the clam’s shell open just a crack to let it feed? Can you tell where a snail or limpet has been? (They will leave trails on the rocks sometimes. ) Watch the tube feet of a sea star waving about. Place the sea cucumber in a pan of salt water when observing it and be careful to disturb the cucumber as little as possible 7. Have students watch the way because, as a protective a jellyfish moves in an measure, it may extrude its aquarium or plastic bag of internal organs. The sea salt water. Let students cucumber will grow its insides touch the tentacles of an back, but that takes time and anemone and feel their sticki- energy. ness (due to the discharge of stinging cells, or nemato- 8. Conclude the session by cysts). Count the legs of having students tell what crabs and shrimps and feel their favorite animals are, their hard shells. and why. 5 Procedure: .. Activity 2 1. Invite a diver or marine Making an Undersea World biologist to demonstrate his or her equipment and show underwater slides. 2. Ask the students about their own ocean adventures. Have them make construction paper cutouts of the animals and label with names based on their own : Susannah Sea Squirt, Joe Jellyfish, Annie Anemone, Kathy Clam. Attach yarn or string, and hang the cutouts decora- tively . The nicknames can be used later on field trip name tags. 3. Select a variety of art activ- ities that will turn your Background: classroom and hallways into an undersea world : hang Children invariably are fascinated colored tissue paper beneath by the undersea world. By dec- fluorescent lights to act as a orating your classroom, students filter; hang art projects and will have a chance to use their seaweed streamers from the imaginations and artistic skills, ceiling; make murals; ask while learning more about the sea students to bring sea trea- and its inhabitants. sures from home such as nets, floats, shells and Materials: driftwood. Additionally, you can : masking tape plastic sponge a. Make paper waves from coarse sandpaper construction paper and crayons tape to window shades. paper Tape sea birds, boats clothes iron and planes above the red finger paint waves, and sea animals black marker below them. When the newsprint shades are drawn, it’s . dried sea star low tide ! (Suggested by . sand the teachers at Badger . glue Road Elementary, Fair- . construction paper banks. > . scissors . yarn or string . paper bags . paintbrush powdered tempera paint 6 b. Have the class cut Using a sponge and jellyfish shapes from orange tempera paint, coarse sandpaper. Color give the sea star a the sandpaper heavily. mottled look. Place a sheet of white paper over each sand- d. Brush tempera on a paper jellyfish and iron dried sea star. Some- over it to make a jelly- times one can be found fish impression. freshly dead at the beach (but don’t kill any C. Cover a piece of paper just for an art project! ) with red finger paint. Cover it with a sheet of When the paint has newsprint. Holding the dried, draw and cut out paper in place, gently the outline of a sea star. rub over the sea star to transfer its image. Sea Week at Denali Elementary School in Fairbanks. e. Make sea paintings, color the drawings and using powdered tempera label with the first letter paint, sand and diluted of their creatures’ glue. Clean the sand names. When finished, and mix with paint students should notify powder (not too much). the teacher so that the Keep the colored sand in animals’ full names can baby-food jars. Spread be added. glue on paper with a paintbrush and sprinkle g.

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