Tide Pools

Tide Pools

Last night, Thurs. Feb 19, we went out at low tide to see what creatures we could find in the tide pools. Low tide was at about 9:30 p.m. so it was really dark! We could see a lot of stars and even the Milky Way Galaxy. To understand the ocean tides, imagine you are standing in the end zone of a football field and that’s where the water touches the beach. At low tide, gravitational force pulls the water out to sea. So now the water touches the beach at the 50-yard line of a football field. We explored pools of water that remain in rock and little sand holes in a space as big as from the end zone to the 50 yard line. Check out this link to learn anything about oceans:
http://www.cybrary.org/ocean.htm
You can go to Wikipedia or Encarta to search any of the sea life I saw. Also there are some fun things on Neat Links I think you will like.

We saw sea Anemones, Blunt-Spined Brittle Star, An Octopus (can you see it in the photo?), another Sharp Tail Eel, lots of Sea Urchins, Snails, Crabs, Sea Cucumber, Coral, Sponges, Minnows, Tiny Golden Coral Shrimp, and Bearded Fireworm. The rocks are jagged and very slippery so we had to be careful!

I had so much fun exploring the tide pools last night I decided to do it again this morning since it was our last day here and we could choose what we wanted to do. For lunch we went to a local restaurant to have traditional Bahamian food: fish, chicken, macaroni and cheese, fish fritters, beans and rice, rolls, coleslaw and for dessert, guava duff! I thought it was delicious! This evening we will get together to talk about the data we collected and how each of us will take this experience home to impact our students and communities.

CHALLENGE: Bring your ocean drawings to school the week of March 2nd that represent how many times you have been on the blog and worked on a challenge question. If you painted, drew a picture or wrote an answer on paper, bring that, too. I will have some things from the Bahamas to show you and some photos next time I see you.