In the Lab: Marine Invertebrates

What makes our campus so unique is that we host people of all different ages, and at any moment you can walk into the Education Center and find a group of excited schoolchildren getting ready to take a bus to the Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge, a college class packing up equipment for field study on one of our research vessels, a group of adults getting ready for a kayaking trip, or even grandparents and grandchildren going out crabbing together on Wallops Island. A lot of the time, these groups cross paths, and this morning two very similar groups were both hard at work in the lab at the same time…

Some invertebrates are so small that you need microscopes in order to see them.

Campers explore the lab, looking at different organisms and taking notes in their journals.

Marine Invertebrates summer camp was studying organisms this morning with lab activities. They went from looking at micro-organisms such as zooplankton and phytoplankton under microscopes to handling macro-organisms like sea cucumbers and marine worms. After a presentation on different types of invertebrates, they used field guides to identify the organisms sitting around the room. This afternoon, they spent the day on the water, kayaking to take a closer look at some of the ecosystems they've been learning about.

The pink pool holds different marine organisms. Here, a student is handling a sea urchin so she can photograph it.

The Marine Invertebrates college course offers an in-depth look at these organisms and teaches you how to identify them.

Meanwhile, our Marine Invertebrates college course taught by Dr. Tracy Whitford of East Stroudsburg University was also studying inverts in another lab just a few doors down. After a lecture by Dr. Whitford, they had time to focus on identifying the many different organisms they had brought in from the field, including a sea urchin and a ghost crab! They used special camera equipment to take pictures of the organisms.

Check out more information on our college courses here and our 16-18 camps here!