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Teaching aquarium innovator  and 5th grade teacher at West Harpswell Elementary School located in Maine, Mrs. Giberson and some her students share their science classroom tank experience through a interesting video.  Topics include: maintenance, feeding, and handling the creatures of the cold-water  touch tank. Enjoy! Grants Available

This video of a science classroom tank is one of the best that Touch-Tank as ever seen. Many schools, museums, educational centers and even businesses make the decision to install a science classroom tank aquarium as a means to reach students and educate customers.

They reduce stress allowing for superior learning, minimize nervousness relaxing students helping them learn and lessens anxiety assisting small children who aren’t used to being away their parents  adjust to the new environment.

They show students how fish live, demonstrate the value of natural aquatic habitats, teach children responsibilities as they care for the live inhabitants, and encourage respect as caretakers learn to nurture and care for those more vulnerable than themselves.

Aquariums teach people about the importance of marine and aquatic resources and they are great fun! If you want to explore the possibilities of supplying a superior teaching experience to your students, apply for a Touch Tanks for Kids Grant and discover how to bring a science classroom tank to a location near you.

Having an educational aquarium in the classroom has a number of benefits, including learning, health and environmental benefits. This is why so many educators use touch tanks to reach students, parents and yes, even administrators. Touch-Tank hopes that you enjoyed this video of a science classroom tank has much as we did!

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

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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.

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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…

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Mr. Chrishan’s creature features assignment works as a wonderful way to reach students. Please, help Matthew expand his lessons to more students.

Every week Mr. Chrishan requires his students to observe and report on the habits of a sea creature. The creature features dwell in a large reef aquarium located in his school’s library and small aquarium housed in the school’s laboratory. This learning exercise inspires his students  to answer specific questions while they observe the natural behavior of the warm-water animals.

Matthew Chrishan believes a cold-water touch tank will help his students learn Science with less resistance because hands-on activates promote learning and will assist his students in recognizing that there is much to learn about the creature features our vast oceans including one of Matt’s passions, coral reefs.

Although the existence of cold-water corals is recognized for several hundreds of years, it is only since the early nineties that scientists have realized that large coral reef structures thrive in parts of the ocean that remain unexplored.

“Little is known about cold-water reef propagation,” says Dave Young Treasure of Capital District Marine Aquarist Society (CDMAS). Dave, who is available for marine science educational presentations, explains that more research and experimentation will help solve coral reef issues. “There is very little information about cold-water species available and this is why I introduced the touch tank concept to our club.”

The Capital District Marine Aquarist Society (CDMAS) is a group of reef-oriented individuals that hold informal, monthly meetings at a volunteer’s home.

Shellfish reefs and beds are essential to the health of marine ecosystems, and realistic and cost-effective solutions in conservation, restoration, and management will help regenerate shellfish reefs and aquarium hobbyist like Matt, Dave and the other members of CDMAS have contributed greatly to the understanding of coral reef propagation with educational such as creature features helping students improve understanding as well.

Dave wants Berlin High School of Berlin, New York get a touch tank and work with Matthew Chrishan to disseminate information about cold-water species and reef propagation. Matt has an abundance of knowledge to share and a cold-water touch tank aquarium equipped with a superior filtration system will defiantly advance our knowledge of the cold-water oceans that surround us.

To contribute to Berlin High School’s campaign or a program of your choice visit, Touch Tanks for Kids or contact Mike Martin at 207-944-9852 or mikemartin@touchtanksforkids.org

Your support will bring assignments such as  creature features to more students. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

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

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Many schools, museums, educational centers and even businesses make

Claudia Murray Photo

the decision to install an innovative teaching aquarium as a means to reach students and educate customers.

Teaching aquariums have a number of benefits, including learning, health and environmental benefits. This is why so many educators and businesspeople decide to improve the décor of their space with a teaching aquarium.

Teaching Aquariums:

Reduce stress-allowing for superior learning

Minimize nervousness-relaxing prospects helping them purchase

Lessen anxiety-helping small children who aren’t used to being away from their parents for a extended period of time adjust to the new environment

Educational Benefits:

Show students how fish live

Demonstrate the value of natural aquatic habitats

Teach children responsible as they care for the live inhabitants

Encourage respect as caretakers learn to nurture other living things and care for those more vulnerable than themselves.

Install a teaching aquarium into your classroom, museum, educational center, or business today. Your abilities to educate your students about aquatic life will improve and your business will sell more products.

Prime Toyota of Saco, Maine installed a innovation  teaching aquarium on their showroom floor last year. The salespeople love it because it signifies the company’s commitment to environmental education and it gives the kids something to do allowing time for their parents to purchase cars.

“What a great way to connect children to the environment.” Said Ira Rosenberg, chief executive officer of Prime Motor Group

Innovative Teaching Aquariums teach people about the importance of marine and aquatic resources and they are great fun! If you want to explore the possibilities of supplying a superior teaching experience to your students and customers contact Marine Ecological Habitats or Touch Tanks for Kids today!

Please share you innovative teaching ideas by posting a comment. Your participate is appreciated.

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

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