Eighth grade students Kayaking on October 8, 2015

Eighth grade students from Ms' Storey's class and Mr. Veloz's class are doing a Pacific mole crab (sand crab) monitoring project at Hollywood Beach.

Students dig core samples at various intervals,and then place the sand in the bag.  After rinsing the sand from the bag, any remaining Pacific mole crabs are counted, measured, recorded and then returned to the sea.  

Marine Science in the 8th grade classroom

In Mr. Quien's eighth grade science class, students are modeling how temperature differences can cause ocean currents.  The colder blue colored water is moving across the bottom tube towards the warmer, red colored water, while the red colored water moves in the opposite direction completing a convection loop.

In this model, the blue colored water has salt added to it, and its higher density causes it to push across the bottom tube towards the less dense red, fresh water.  Students observe that not only temperature differences drive ocean currents, but differences in salinity also drive the ocean currents.

Marine Science in the 6th grade classrooms

Sixth grade students in Mr Conant's class are studying ocean current models using Ocean Science Sequence, a Lawrence Hall of Science curriculum .  The red colored salty water flows to the bottom of the tank.

The warmer, yellow colored water flows towards the top of the tank.  Students study the oceanographic mechanisms that cause ocean currents

Sand Crab Monitoring on our October 1 trip to the Channel Islands Boating Center