Field Trips
Learning about all of the amazing creatures that live underwater makes everyone want to go check them out. Get hands-on (or eyes-on) with the fishes and make friends for life by getting up close and personal with underwater wonders.
Super Scope
You can visit any nearby body of water and discover the secrets of the deep (or not-so-deep) by making your own Super Scope. Most of the activity underwater is too small or delicate to capture, so watching it up-close is the best way to get in on the action. Place your Super Scope just under the surface of the water and look through it for a magnified view of wondrous water life. You'll need a plastic food-storage tub with a snap-on lid (like a yogurt container), the larger the better. You'll also need some clear plastic wrap. Here are the directions for putting it together:
Cut off the bottom of the tub.
Cut the center out of the tub's lid so only the rim remains.
Stretch a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the tub and snap the rim over it to hold it in place.
Poke the plastic-wrapped end into the water and look through. Instant magnification of the marvelous world of underwater adventures!
The reason you get magnification from this simple contraption is that when you stick the Super Scope into the water, the plastic wrap is forced up by the water pressure, creating a concave magnifying lens. Super-science for a Super Scope made out of reused material. If you want to take it one tiny step further, gather and clean clear sandwich wrap or sandwich bags for your lens so you're not using new plastic at all!
Take a virtual field trip to the ocean by visiting your local computer lab. Dive into www.oceanslive.org and you'll find video of aquanauts, fish, and coral reefs. There are also games and other educational activities. It's the ocean online (no snorkel required)!
Aquarium Adventures
It's a given that if you want to learn about aquatic ecosystems, you should visit a local aquarium. Maybe you have a location dedicated to aquatic life or maybe you decide to visit that area of your local zoo. You can also call your local department of natural resources to see if they have holding tanks or a lab that you could visit to see the types of aquatic creatures that are natural to your regional environment. If you're really scrambling, you could also visit a local pet shop and look at the different fish they have for personal aquariums. Where did they come from? How were they captured?
Whichever type of aquarium you decide to visit, make sure you know in advance what kinds of fish or other marine life they have. Prep your students with pictures you can find online and quick facts to get them thinking and coming up with questions for your guides. If you know in advance what will be there, you can even learn a few facts and then have a fish scavenger hunt.
