- Hydrothermal Vents Coloring Book
- Plankton (Coloring Plankton Identification Guides and Plankton Activity Coloring Pages)
- Marine Food Web (Coloring Pages and Coloring Activity Page)
- Facebook Live Streaming Events (Schedule, Background, and Bingo Game Card)
- Buoyancy (Hands-on activities experimenting with buoyancy)
- Fish (What makes a fish a fast swimmer?)
- Ocean Acidification (Hands-on activity employing the scientific method)
ALL ABOUT HYDROTHERMAL VENTS
Hydrothermal Vents Coloring Book
A comprehensive coloring book for elementary school age children. Children will learn about hydrothermal vent communities and gain a basic understanding of seafloor hydrothermal processes.
Please send us your student’s artwork and we will endeavor to post it with your child’s first name and grade on our facebook page!
ALL ABOUT Plankton
Children learn about the importance of plankton and become familiar with some of the plankton that are commonly observed in Monterey Bay, CA.
Find out what we found in a few drops of water:
Plankton commonly found in Monterey Baya: Hover over the image to find out more about it!
PHYTOPLANKTON (microscopic marine algae)
ZOOPLANKTON (Animal-plankton)
PLANKTON ACTIVITY PAGES
Plankton commonly found in Monterey Baya: Hover over the image to find out more about it!
Radiolarian
Zooplankton: Radiolarians are protozoans their shell is made up of silica. Extensions of the radiolarian’s cytoplasm helps it to catch food that floats by. In addition, symbiotic algae reside in the outer layer of the radiolarian’s cytoplasm that provide the protozoan with enough food to survive weeks without any additional nutrition.
Veliger
Zooplankton
Veliger is the planktonic larval stage of snails and most clams.
Dinophysis
Phytoplankton: Dinoflagellate
Akashiwo
Phytoplankton:
A photosynthetic dinoflagellate. Blooms will cause red tides.
Zoea
Zooplankton:
A zoea is a larval stage in the life cycle of crabs. This stage is between the nauplius and the magalop stages.The zoea larva has a large dorsal spine and 2 lateral spines.
Chaetoceros
Phytoplankton:
Chaetoceros is a centric diaton. It is the most abundant genus of diatoms in the ocean. Cells form chains with long setae projection form the corners of the cells.
Jelly
Zooplankton
Pseudo-Nitzschia
Phytoplankton:
A pennate diatom. Some species are capable of producing domoic acid (a neurotoxin). When small fish feed on blooms the toxin is transferred up the food web and can cause death of marine mammals.
Asteromphalus
Phytoplankton: Centric diatom.
Calanoid Copepod
Zooplankton:
Holoplankton. Calanoid Copepods are the dominant animals in the plankton and therefore important primary consumers. They consume phytoplankton and are consumed by higher trophic level predators.
Prorocentrum
Phytoplankton:
Photosynthetic Dinoflagellate
Copepod Nauplius
Zooplankton/Holoplankton
Copepods are tiny crustaceans that have a larval stage. The egg hatches into the nauplius form from where it molts several times until it reaches its adult form.
Noctiluca
Phytoplankton: Dinoflagellate
Noctiluca is a free-living bioluminescent dinoflagellate. It has one flagellum, is non-photosynthetic and of rather large size (200 – 2000 mircrons). It is a heterotroph that feeds by engulfing (phagocytosis) its food (diatoms, fish eggs, bacteria and even other dinoflagellates).
Polychaete larvae
Zooplankton: Meroplankton
translucent, motile marine worm larvae which eventually outgrows its planktonic stage.
Barnacle Nauplius
Zooplankton: Meroplankton
Larval planktonic stage 2 – 4 weeks. Barnacles are arthropods. The barnacle egg hatches into a one-eyed nauplius. The nauplius will molt 6 times before reaching its Cyprid stage which is the last stage before adulthood during which the barnacle will settle head first onto substrate.
PLANKTON ACTIVITY PAGES
1. Zooplankton identification game. Connect the larval stage to the adult animal with a line. Click here for a printable pdf: Larval zooplankton matching game
2. Circle all of the zooplankton. A small fish is hungry and needs help finding zooplankton in the plankton “soup”. Color the plankton but only draw a circle around the zooplankton. Click here for a printable pdf: Find the zooplankton
3. Identify phytoplankton. We classify phytoplankton into 3 major groups. Draw lines connecting each individual to the appropriate group. Click here for a printable pdf: Phytoplankton ID
Please send us your artwork and we will endeavor to post it with your first name and grade on our facebook page.
THE MARINE FOOD WEB
Learn about different food chains that comprise the marine food web.
1. Coloring page illustrating the importance and abundance of plankton. Click here for a printable pdf: Primary Producers
2. Coloring page showing the food web near the surface. Click here for a printable pdf: epipelagic zone food web
3. Coloring page of the marine food web: Click here for a printable pdf: Marine food web
4. Predator and prey matching activity. Color the animals and draw a line to their food source. An answer key can be found on the second page of the printable pdf. Children are encouraged to draw examples of primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, and quaternary consumers into the spaces provided. Click here for a printable pdf: Food web matching game
Enjoy this spectacular video of the Top 10 Deep Sea animals from MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute). You may recognize some of these animals in our food web activity pages.
We want kids to have the opportunity to explore marine life along the Monterey Wharf Harbor Wall and Wharf Pilings, so we’re making it a possibility by having four free LIVE STREAMING events during the Month of July. Join us on Facebook, find the animals, interact with the pilot, tell us what you discover on our dives!
FACEBOOK LIVE STREAMING EVENTS
| Month | Day | Time |
|---|---|---|
| July | 15th (Wednesday) | 8:30 am PDT |
| July | 17th (Friday) | 10:30 am PDT |
| July | 22nd (Wednesday) | 1:30 pm PDT |
| July | 28 th (Tuesday) | 11:15 am PDT |
ALL ABOUT BUOYANCY
ROV operation relies heavily on our understanding of buoyancy. An ROV should be close to neutrally buoyant meaning it should neither float nor sink. To make this happen, ROVs need flotation on top. This prevents the ROV from sinking and placement of flotation on the top keeps the ROV upright in the water, preventing it from tumbling about. The following activity is designed to help children learn what exactly makes an object swim or sink in water. For a fun way to gain a basic understanding of the concept, we encourage you to watch Bill Nye the Science Guy’s YouTube video Buoyancy
SALT WATER BUOYANCY
We learned that the upward force equals the weight of the displaced volume of water. Since salt water weighs more (it has salt dissolved in it) than fresh water, the upward force of saltwater is greater than that of fresh water.
Make an egg float!
To demonstrate this, place an egg in a cup of tap water and then add salt to the water, observe what happens.
It should take about 2 tablespoons of salt to make the egg float in 6 oz. of water. Make sure the salt is fully dissolved.
WHAT MAKES A FISH A FAST SWIMMER?
This activity is designed with younger children in mind. Kids are invited to be creative, think outside the box, and come up with an imaginary fish, living in an imaginary environment, showcasing real world adaptations that make it successful in its unique habitat. We hope the following activity will spark your child’s imagination.
Most carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere through human industrial processes. About 1/4 of this carbon dioxide gets absorbed by the ocean. The ocean’s absorption of the carbon dioxide was originally looked at as a positive because it was thought to slow the process of global warming seen in the atmosphere. It was soon discovered that this surplus of carbon dioxide was actually dangerous for our oceans as well. The increase in carbon dioxide causes the ocean to be much more acidic. This is because the number of free hydrogen ions in seawater increases as carbon dioxide reacts with seawater. According to NOAA.gov, Over the last 200 years, the ocean has become about 30% more acidic. So what exactly happens to the ocean’s ecosystems when acidity increases and why does it matter? Well, we can make a comparison to what happens to humans, the According to the Smithsonian Institution Average human blood pH ranges between 7.35 and 7.45. A change in the pH of as little as 0.2-0.3 can cause seizures, comas, and even death. Similarly, a small change in the pH of seawater can have harmful effects on marine life. As you have seen in the video, lower pH levels erode the shells of clams, oysters, sea urchins, and snails to name a few. The following activity, albeit an exaggeration since seawater is and will remain alkaline, illustrates the effect of acid on the calcium carbonate shells of animals. Furthermore, lowering the pH of seawater lowers carbonate ion concentrations. Some of the carbonate ions that bond with calcium to form calcium carbonate (the building block of shells), instead bind with free hydrogen to form bicarbonate. This causes corals for example, to have a much more difficult time growing and rebuilding their calcium carbonate skeletons.
Materials:
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2 containers (cups)
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2 eggs
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12 oz. cold water
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12 oz. vinegar
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printout of pdf.
Put one egg in a cup filled with water, the other in a cup filled with vinegar. Cover your cups or containers with a lid or some wax paper and let stand at room temperature. Check in the mornings and evenings and write down your observations. After about 24 hours you may have to replace your vinegar with fresh vinegar. After 3 days, carefully remove your egg from the liquid and rinse with water.
What happened to the egg?
The calcium carbonate shell of the egg dissolved.
Acetic Acid (vinegar is diluted acetic acid) dissolved the calcium carbonate shell of the egg completely. The bubbles you observed on the shell was carbon dioxide gas which is released in the reaction:
CaCO3 + 2 HC2H3O2 ------- Ca(C2H3O2)2 + H2O + CO2
The ``naked`` egg will be very delicate because it is held together by a semi permeable membrane only. Notice that the egg may be larger now. This is because some of the water may have entered the egg by a process called osmosis.
