Mason Nistad

My Aquarium  Reflection

On October 28th, 2015 Ashley Hall’s 6th grade went to the aquarium to learn all about phylums. We headed straight to the classroom where all around us were many tables full of fun labs to do. We went to a classroom and learned all about phylums that belonged to animals without spinal cords, invertebrates. We went through all three labs which were very exciting. The first lab I went to was talking about finding and recording DNA. We talked about how DNA works and talked about how some restaurants may not actually be selling the fish they are saying it is. We looked at four different types of fish, and their DNA. We noticed that almost all the fish except for the Mahi Mahi were not what what they really said they were. But all of the fish were sustainable that means they reproduce normally and there are enough fish to have to eat. The next lab we went to was identify organisms and their phylum. It was interesting to learn about the organisms that you think are alike but are actually different in many different ways. The last lab we went to was where we were going to classify organisms in the great ocean tank by using a dichotomous key. A dichotomous key is a tool scientist use to classify organisms by traits that are alike and different. We went to the great ocean tank and were given a fish to classify. Since we had just learned fish anatomy it was cool to look at all the different shapes and sizes of dorsal, caudal and pectoral fins. Overall this was one of the most simple, fun, and educational field trips ever!