Stop by the Marine Environment Research Institute (MERI) of Blue Hill, Maine and witness live marine life in a ocean aquarium , or join MERI’s marine experts on an Eco-tour of Blue Hill Bay and learn about MERI’s Coastal Monitoring.

MERI Center for Marine Studies’ ocean room presents an opportunity for experiential learning. With an interactive touch tank and other aquariums featuring a friendly lumpfish named Norman, as well as lobsters, crabs, sea anemones, sea stars, mussels, fish and other species native to the Gulf of Maine, MERI promotes shared knowledge and appreciation of marine life.

“For teachers and schools, the Ocean Aquarium builds excitement about marine science education in the classroom. Above all, the Ocean Aquarium was designed to appeal to our children. The more they understand and feel connected with ocean life, the more deeply they will care about what happens to our oceans and the quality of life along our coast.”

MERI’s vision has been created to have a dynamic marine science center that will increase our understanding of the Gulf of Maine and lasting positive impact on our community and the oceans. Touch-Tank thinks they succeed, visit the ocean aquarium at the MERI center today, you’ll be happy that you did.

MERI Center for Marine Studies
55 Main Street, Blue Hill, ME 04614
info@meriresearch.org

This site is created and maintained by Shannon Mae Development, Inc.

A horseshoe crab makes a nice resident for your marine aquariums. Touch-Tank caught up with Coastal Carol an expert in intertidal exploration to learn more about the horseshoe crabs that have survived for over 250 million years. The video depicts some of what we learned about the horseshoe crab.

Contact Touch Tanks for Kids to bring an interactive aquarium experience to your students. They will learn more when observing a horseshoe crab molt and mature. Grants available!

Caution:

Handle with care; you can pinch your fingers between the two parts of the shell.

Mating

Each spring during the high tides of the new and full moons, horseshoe crabs come to the sandy shorelines to spawn. They lay there green eggs in sand and depend on waves to wash the sand over the nest.

Males are generally smaller than their mates. They cluster along the water’s edge and wait patiently for the females to arrive. The male attaches to the female’s shell with glove-like claws and awaits high tide. He fertilizes the eggs when he is pulled over the nest where the female deposit as many as 20,000 green eggs in sand. After the spring ritual is over, they return to the deeper waters of the ocean.

Horseshoe Crab Facts

They are not really crabs

They are related to scorpions, ticks and spiders

They have their own classification (Class Merostomata)

Their blood is blue

They are not dangerous

They are found along the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to the Yucatan with another three species living in the coastal waters from Japan to Indonesia

They can go a year without eating

Their hard, curved shells protect them from predators.

They endure extreme temperatures and salinity changes

Their tails push them through the sand and muck, act as a rudder, and help them turnover

Their central mouth is surrounded by its legs

Their eggs take about 2 weeks to hatch

They have 2 compound eyes on the top of their shells with a range of about 3 feet

They can swim upside down and use a dozen legs and  a flap hiding nearly 200 flattened gills to propel themselves

They usual feed at night but will eat anytime

They burrow for worms and mollusks

They grow by twenty-five percent while molting

The larvae molt six times during the first year

After sixteen molts, they completely mature into adults, maturity takes between 9 and 12 years

Before the arrival of artificial fertilizers, they were dried for used as fertilizer and poultry food supplements.

Some fish eat the juveniles and the recently molted

Their eggs are important food for migratory shore birds that pass over the Delaware Bay during the spring mating season

Extract from their blood  is used to test the purity of medicines.

Parts of their shells speed blood clotting and are used for absorbent sutures. Read more on Horseshoe Crabs Love Marine Aquariums…

Incorporated on February 25, 1892, Colonial Beach, Virginia is the “Playground on the Potomac.” Its beautiful beaches and lavish waterfront property including its most famous structure The Alexander Graham Bell house, presently the Bell House Bed and Breakfast  located  on Irving Street, is a must see family destination.

Only a short drive from the well traveled Route 3 “Historic Corridor” that hosts attractions including Stratford Hall, George Washington’s Birthplace, Westmoreland State Park, Historic Downtown Fredericksburg, and The Museum at Colonial Beach.

The Colonial Beach Historical Society rescued an historical house from destruction and created the Museum at Colonial Beach to tell the town rich history through artifacts, photos and other exhibits.  The Museum is open to visitors from early April until the middle of December. The regular hours of operation are Saturdays and Sundays 1-4 pm and the second Friday of the month from 6-8 pm though private tours are available through appointment. Admission is free, but your generous donations help keep the doors open.

The museum has much to offer including the Watermen’s Room, a permanent exhibit, dedicated by the founding members of the Historical Society to honor the generations of fishermen and oysterman who made their living on the waters around Colonial Beach. The surrounding waters are important to the area, so important in fact that the museums supporters reached out to Touch Tanks for Kids for help in purchasing a touch tank to demonstrate to local children and visitors alike how important the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and its sea creatures are to the continued prosperity of  the “Playground on the  Potomac”

Here is the email from The Museum at Colonial Beach curator, Shane Buzby, to Touch Tanks for Kids executive director, Mike Martin, explaining how the museum will secure the additional funding for their touch tank project and his subsequent post on the Touch Tanks for Kids Discussion Forum explaining how the touch tank will benefit the museum’s community.

Hello, my name is Shane Buzby. I am writing on behalf of The Museum at Colonial Beach Va. We are a small Beach town, located on the Potomac River in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Museum is devoted to the education of all people from children to adults. We firmly believe that a touch tank would be instrumental in the education and learning for our children especially. It would give the schoolchildren a chance to learn about nature and how to conserve our resources. We see this as a valuable asset to the Museum, which would provide field trips and special events around the touch tank. Being a small non-profit organization, we would rely on our memberships and donations to secure extra funding for any added costs. Thank you for your time. -Shane Buzby (curator)

Shane Buzby’s wonderful explanation of how a touch tank will enhance the Museum at Colonial Beach:

100 Years of the Colonial Beach School System

In today’s world, where children are more involved with television and video games, The Museum at Colonial Beach wants to reach out to the children and educate them with the utilization of a touch tank. The Museum at Colonial Beach Va, is dedicated to the education of our children, and what better way to promote education, but through a touch tank. Imagine the look in a child’s eyes as he/she touches a specimen form the touch tank, that they have only seen in a book or magazine. Being a small community, the museum is located within walking distance from the elementary school. This will enable the children to take multiple field trips to learn about our environment, the species that live in our waters, and to promote the conservation of the earth. I see a touch tank as the biggest educational tool available. Our Town is located on the Potomac River and thrives with numerous species of shellfish, crustaceans, and wildlife. The Museum wants to promote the preservation of these and the education of what these species are and how they feel and live. As our children seem less involved with nature, the museum wants to let them know what our world has to offer and through a touch tank, I feel that we can communicate with our children. After all, the children of today are the future of tomorrow.  Thank You – Shane Buzby (curator)

The Museum at Colonial Beach is doing a membership drive!!! Please go to their website http://www.museumatcolonialbeach.com , and become a member of the Museum Today. Your membership is what keeps the museum doors open and will help improve the decorum with an educational touch tank!

Join the discussion at the Touch Tanks for Kids Discussion Forum and let them know how they can improve the Touch Tanks for Kids Program.

This site is created and maintained by Shannon Mae Development, Inc.

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. Read more on Understanding Lobster-Educational Touch Tank Assignment…

We met Mr. Waldo at the National Marine Educators Conference in Boston last spring. Because of his love for rocky shore animals, the touch tank display attracted his attention instantly. “Wow, this is exactly what I need for my classroom,” he said and calmly explained that interactive lessons are how to teach Science.

Many great educators that specialize in Science tell us that students comprehend more and stay interested longer with interactive instruction. Children must do science to learn science Mr. Waldo explained prior to going into detail about the many interactive activities in his classroom.  His excitement buried any reluctance that we had about the touch tank project.

We have learned since then that the Earth is living on borrowed time. Common household and commercial practices have produced devastating affects to the rocky shore animals. Fortunately, unlimited opportunities exist as a result. Hope exists because ingenuity focused on historical reference has abundant possibility.  Hope that I observed when we visited Mr. Waldo’s Science class the afternoon of March 7, 2009 at Berwick Academy in Southern Maine.

We visited these very bright kids with Touch Tanks for Kids supporter Sir. Charlton Shackleton. We borrow the “Sir” from his Great Great Grandfather whose adventures are chronicled in a book tiled The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton, by Hugh Robert Miller. At the end of the 20th century, Shackleton became a cult figure and role model for leadership resulting from a survival story which polar historian Stephanie Barczewski describes as “incredible”. Sir Charlton’s short lecture supports the science and conservation message of the touch tank with a memorable history meeting that helps build motivation to learn. 

An inter-disciplinary approach to teaching provides abundant advantages for learning. The curriculum presents content, skills and assessments through exploring connections among the disciplines. A multi-disciplinary method prepares students for the challenges of a rapidly changing world and is the preferred technique of Mr. Waldo.

With help from the Liberian Jennifer Brewer and Art Instructor Taintor Child, Mr. Waldo and the touch tank, inspired each student in Mr. Summers’ fourth grade class to produced A Guide to Rocky Shore Animals of New England. Sarah learned that rough periwinkles are the prey of the dog whelks that Alex discovers come in white, orange or striped. We learned many important facts while studying the students’ project and this will defiantly help us share our mission

Matthew Waldo supersized us when he describe a dynamic that is often observe when displaying a touch tank. Multi-generational learning is a natural result of interactive activities.  Matt descried an encounter that sounded familiar. When visited by the older seventh grade students, the fourth graders were “thrilled” to share their knowledge and the seventh graders were “enthused” about listening.  “Teaching up” is an exciting way to improve the effectiveness of the education experience and interactive tools help facilitate the process

Mr. Summers’ fourth grade students are hopeful about their future and Mr. Waldo’s educational exercises including Lucy, a Bearded Dragon lizard and the touch tank that inspired students to research, illustrate and summarize the creatures that call it home in a useful and colorful guide that provided them with deeper understanding of nature.

The oceans have enormous potential but face real threats. Greater knowledge and understanding of our natural resources are a certainty when innovative leaders like Mr. Waldo have the resources necessary that open minds and reward creativity. Our trip to Berwick proved useful. We ate lunch, discovered the importance of multi-generational education and became inspired about the future.  A big thank you to Mr. Summers’ students for helping us accomplishes our mission by providing A Guide to Rocky Shore Animals of New England .

This site is created and maintained by Shannon Mae Development, Inc.