ROOM 15’S AQUARIUM TRIP 

We were split into two groups one went with Adam to the tanks and we were told to look for fish, we looked for stuff like types of fish and numbers. Then we came to the touch tanks where people said stuff like this thing is slimy and gross.

The other group went with Shelly to a room with mini tanks, where they went into depth about the things in the tanks. They told us how the animal gets their food. And they talked about their self defence adaptations. A few people got to eat some seaweed. Then the groups switched.

We got back together and had a discussion about what we had leant and we drew a food web. The food web was all over the place with lots of arrows linking back to humans. Then our guides talked about the dogfish and how they got them, paying special importance to respecting the shark because it was a living animal.

Finally, the dissection!!! The part everyone had been waiting for. Some found this challenging and they only watched while others had a great hands on experience. We were put in groups of three and given a dogfish. ‘Without cutting it see what you can find out.’ we were told and we did! We also found out if it was a boy or a girl (everyone had a boy.) Next, we were given scissors and told to cut the shark open. There was lots of discussion about different organs. During the last part of the dissection we cut open the stomach to see if we could work out what the Dogfish had been eating. The stuff in the stomach looked like eye-soup. We decided this slimy transparent substance with black dots was most likely the eyes from crustaceans. After we cleaned up by placing the shark into a bucket, we washed our hands in cold water with soap so the smell wouldn't get into our pores. Great advice!.

Doug (Erasmus’ dad) showed up and he took us to the study part of the aquarium where no one else got to go. We went down in a crowded elevator. We went to the jetty and had a look into a freezer and saw a dead baby whale(it stank).

Our aquarium trip was a great igniter for our theme - Survivor. Thank you to the parents and teachers who provided transport to Portobello and a special thank you to the very knowledgeable aquarium staff; Adam; Shelly and Doug.