Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Seattle Aquarium with 2nd Graders


This past Thursday I went to the Seattle Aquarium with Brett's class. I love going on field trips with my kids. I was a volunteer in their class all year, so the kids know me pretty well, which makes it all the more fun. I did this trip with Andrew's class last year, so I knew the drill, but this year they added something that we did not do last year, which was a classroom experience where a marine biologist talked to the kids about things that you might find in a tide pool.

Why am I blogging this? I guess it's a follow-up to the "Gulper Eels Don't Poop" post.
We learned:


  • Starfish vomit their stomachs onto their food and digest it outside of their body and then reswallow their stomachs with the food.

  • When you disturb a sea cucumber, it will completely poop out it's intestines and stomach, hoping that the predator will eat that and leave it alone. It then regrows it's innards.

  • Sea cucumbers also smell through their butt.

With information like that in a classroom of second graders - you cannot fail!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Either I need to get a life, or this is amazing facts, cause that made my day.

Anonymous said...

puking and pooping will never be boring! thanks for the info, dean.

VikingMom said...

Ahhh yes, good old marine biology. That was my favorite part of science while growing up Oregon. I told my kids about the starfish's amazing stomach ability the other day and they didn't believe me. Now I'll just show them your blog as verification that I do know what I'm talking about!

Crystal Lynn said...

wow, I feel educated and slightly disturbed that I read this. :)

Anonymous said...

So, is there any way to work any of those facts into a sermon somehow??!! You just make me laugh Dean...