Understanding Lobster-Educational Touch Tank Assignment

Touch-Tank hopes that this assignment helps you with understanding lobster.

Station 1: Behavior

Station 2: Trapping; Diversity

Station 3: Anatomy

This Educational Touch Tank Assignment is a great learning experience for all ages.

Supplies

Station 1: Behavior

• Live Lobsters-juvenile lobster work best because they are much less intimidating

• If you do not have an educational touch tank, a 10 gallon plastic storage bin works. You’ll need an ice chest or similar container to house and transport the lobsters. Salt water and ice required use a hydrometer to ensure proper saintly.

Station 2: Traps and Diversity

• Minnow traps

• Colored plastic drinking straws cut into sections

• A poster showing lobster diversity-laminate

Station 3: Drawing/ Anatomy

• live lobster

• Drawing supplies: quality cardstock, mechanical pencils, colored pencils or crayons

• A camera

• A plastic model of a lobster has proved helpful

Station 1: Behavior

1. Ask students what they are observing. Has anybody ever caught one? Where? How many legs do they have?
2. Ask students to compare and contrast lobster to insects. NOTE: both insects and lobsters have an exoskeleton with joints on the legs, allowing movement
3. Ask students which legs they use for walking?
4. Ask students what lobster use the big pinchers for? Defense, catching and holding food, signals to other lobsters and more
5. Place a finger near the front of a lobster. What does it do? Why?
6. Demonstrate picking up a lobster by the carapace- is the behavior different?
7. Explain how and let the kids handle the lobster

Keep the lobster safe:

• do not use hand sanitizer

• hold lobsters over the water

Discussions:

1 .How many legs have pincers at the end?

2. Why do so many legs have pinchers?

3. Why are there so many different kinds of mouthparts

4. Notice that bubbles sometimes come out from the exoskeleton, why?

5. What do lobster eat?-Omnivorous

6. Swimmerets (the small legs under the abdomen)

A. males transfer sperm packets with the swimmerets

B. Females hold eggs and newly hatched young with the swimmerets-eggs look like berries

Molting:

A. skin grows – but the exoskeletons do not grow.(Compare to clothes. i.e. What do you do when your clothes get too small?)

B. When lobsters outgrow their shell, they start making a new one underneath – but this new one is not hard.

C. The old exoskeleton splits along certain places and the lobsters departs, leaving the old skin which looks a lot like a dead lobster

D. This is a dangerous time for the lobster. Why?

Station 2: Traps and Diversity

Trapping:

Learning how traps work is a physical activity that captures the attention of students

Hint: replace the clips with twist-ties (these are a lot easier to remove).

1. Hand out traps, have students take turns, so only a few traps are needed
2. Hand out colored straw segments
3. Have students experiment with traps using the straw pieces as simulated lobster
4. Discuss lobster trapping

Diversity:

1. Display laminated posters
2. Discuss the diversity among lobster species
3. Discuss how habitat might influence the various lobster species
4. Discuss the most common lobster and where they come from
5. Discuss the problems that lobsters face:
   A. water pollution
   B. loss of habitat, Examples include, drainage, plant loss, dams, temperature are changed..etc

Station 3: Drawing/Anatomy

Students learn more when interesting lessons are supported by art. There is much to learn when students are provided with drawing materials so that they can further investigate lobsters in a touch tank. Note: a realistic plastic lobster is helpful for the kids to see and handle.

Have students draw, label and explain the various parts of a lobster. Take many pictures and send students home with a unique drawing that commemorates their Understanding Lobster-Educational Touch Tank Assignment.

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