Our Plankton Pioneers had a bountiful day fishing on the bay. They enjoyed hauling our otter trawl net and working together to scoop up some mud to join our mud. They sang “Plankton Soup” as they learned about the base of the food chain in the bay. Can your camper teach you what plankton is? Plankton are things that live in the water and they drift with a current rather than swim. These drifters are an important part of the food chain, especially the phytoplankton, or plant plankton, which photosynthesize, providing oxygen and food for other organisms in the water.
Our Bay Explorers also examined bay food chains during their field trip to Crab Cove today. The Crab Cove visitor center features an aquarium of bay animals and beautiful beach and mudflat where food chains can be observed in nature. Help your camper to illustrate the food chain in the bay with a diorama of the bay just like the one they studied in the “Wharf Classroom” at Crab Cove. Don’t forget the animals in the mud, swimming through the water and stuck to the rocks!
It was another beautiful day of paddling for our Underwater Investigators. On land we cracked a few eggs for our first biomimicry challenge: the egg drop. Our campers are getting their inventing juices flowing in preparation for their final challenge which will take place on Friday as they return from their overnight on the ship.