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Self-guiding in the Galleries
Pre-During-Post Visit Resources
Aquarium

Grades 3-5

Scroll down the page to find items on the menu below or click on a link to jump to an item.

During Your Visit
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Things You Don't Want to Miss
Discussion Questions
Activities
Go to the Aquarium Gallery Page

Before and After Your Visit
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Important Terms and Concepts
Activities
Print and Web Resources

	Touch Tanks As the tide rises and falls along the New England coast, some areas are exposed to the air at low tide and covered with water at high tide. As the tide goes out, pools of water are left behind on sandy beaches or in the cracks and crevices of rocky shores. These are called tide pools. In the Aquarium Touch Tanks you will find invertebrates that have adapted to this fluctuating environment. Sea urchins, mussels, sea stars, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs and periwinkles are some of the marine animals that one would find in tide pools, and they are here for you to touch and observe.
	Lionfish Reef Tank The lionfish is famous for its dramatic fins and venomous spines. These fish must be cared for carefully by our trained Aquarists, who if pricked may develop a skin rash. You can admire and wonder at them safely while they swim behind glass. The lionfish's tank mates include puffer fish and eels.
	Live Coral Reef Tank Coral reefs are warm, clear, ocean habitats that provide home and shelter to a wide variety of colorful marine life. Though coral look more like plants than animals, they are actually animals. However, algae live inside the coral and carry on photosynthesis to produce food that is consumed by the coral. When certain hard coral die they leave behind a limestone skeleton. The Museum's live coral reef tank contains roughly 25 species of coral, in addition to a variety of other invertebrates and fishes. Skeletonized coral can be seen in some of the tanks neighboring the live coral reef tank.
	Amazon Tank The red-bellied piranha is the Amazon's most notorious animal. Piranhas do have sharp teeth and powerful jaws, but the stories of fatal mass attacks are just that…stories. None have ever been confirmed. In fact, observations of Aquarists at places like the Museum indicate that piranhas can be quite shy and timid. When an Aquarium staff member puts his or her hand in the tank, the piranhas swim for cover and hide.

Here are some questions for teachers, chaperones and students to think about while visiting the exhibit.

• If you could swim around in one of the Aquarium tanks, which one would you choose? Which fish would you be? Why? What would it feel like? Smell like? Taste like? Sound like?
• If you could be one of the animals in the Touch Tank, which one would you choose to be? Why? Which one would you least like to be? Why?
• Which Aquarium animal do you think is the most beautiful? Fastest? Most dangerous? Best at hiding? Why do you think so?
• Encourage students to read the Did You Know? clipboards around the Aquarium. Did they find anything surprising?

Compare and Contrast
Have students draw a Venn diagram on a blank piece of paper. Then ask them to pick one of the animal pairs listed below out of a hat. Students should observe both of their animals and then fill out their diagram, placing characteristics of animal A in one circle, characteristics of animal B in the other circle, and characteristics that both animals share in the place where the two circles overlap. As an extension after your visit, you could have students pick one of those animals and do a second Venn diagram, this time comparing and contrasting the selected aquarium animal and human beings.

Animal pairs: turtle and crab, eel and snake, chameleon and frog, puffer fish and sea urchin, toad and salamander, yellow tang and lionfish, piranha and cichlid (any fish in the Lake Tanganyika Tank).

You may want to familiarize your students with the following terms before your visit to the museum.

• Adaptation
  a physical feature or behavior of an organism (a living thing) that has developed over time and helps the organism to survive in its environment.
• Algae
  a group of plant-like aquatic organisms (living things) can carry on photosynthesis, though they are not plants. Includes the familiar fuzzy, slippery algae that can grow on rocks in ponds, as well as various types of sea weeds.
• Coral
  is an ocean animal that lives in colonies. Some corals leave a hard, stony skeleton when they die.
• Gills
  organs that fish and amphibians use to breathe (take in oxygen) underwater.
• Krill
  small shrimp-like, marine crustaceans.
• Plankton
  tiny organisms (living things) that float in the oceans and other bodies of water. Plankton is the base of the oceanic food web.
• Anemone
  a sea animal that resembles a flower.
• Brackish water
  the water present in a location where saltwater and freshwater mix.
• Invertebrate
  an animal without a spinal column (spine/backbone). The Touch Tank animals are invertebrates.
• Vertebrate
  an animal with a spinal column (spine/backbone). Fish, amphibians, and reptiles are vertebrates.

Aquarium Math
Give each student a blank piece of paper and ask them draw their own fish tank. After they have drawn the perimeter (sides) of their tank, then give them time to draw the contents of the tank. Ask them to label all of the parts of their picture (this is good diagram-labeling practice). When students have finished their tanks, ask them to answer some math questions about their tank. Click here for complete directions/worksheet.

Fish Autobiography
Choose a fish you have learned about. Write a story or a series of "diary entries" as if you were that fish. Describe your life and your habitat. Try to imagine a fish adventure and write it convincingly.

Gyotaku: Japanese Fish Printing
(Pronounced ghio-ta’-koo) is the Japanese art of fish printing. It is an excellent interdisciplinary marine education activity. Click here for complete directions.

Use the Berkshire Athenaeum’s on-line catalogue to search for these print resources in Central/Western Massachusetts.

Print and Web Materials for Students

Arthur, Alex. Shell. (A Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Book). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Many beautiful images of different kinds of shells, and very accessible but specific text about the animals who create them and dwell in them. A great resource for information about aquatic invertebrates.

Parker, Steve. Fish. (A Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Book). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. An easy-to-understand book filled with photos, illustrations, and explanations of how fish function.

Print and Web Materials for Educators

New England Aquarium
Link to the New England Aquarium, located in Boston MA. This site offers activities and a guide to the Aquarium itself.

Puzzlemaker
Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, crossword and math puzzles using your word lists. A part of the Discovery Channel's Discovery School Web Site.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent Federal grant- making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities supports the Berkshire Museum.

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