Physical Distancing STEM Break with Ms. Meghan: Swim with the Sharks

Did you know that your Galesburg Public Library card allows you to check out e-books and audio books through the Libby app? All you need is your library card and your PIN (your birth date in MMDDYYYY format) and you'll be on your way to reading on your phone or tablet!

I'll be pairing up Libby books for GPL patrons with STEM activities, live webcams, educational programs, and citizen science projects.

Right now? The human world, it's (still) a mess. So, let's go

Swim with the Sharks!

Sharks have been around, relatively unchanged, since before the dinosaurs. They're in a separate class from most of the familiar fishes, called Chondrichthyes ('cartilage fish'). Sharks and rays have skeletons made up of cartilage (like what's in the middle of your nose) as opposed to bones like you and me.

Read: 

There are a number of books about sharks that you can borrow from Libby, including Wild Sea Creatures by Chris and Martin Kratt and 101 Amazing Facts About Sharks by Jack Goldstein.  

Watch:
The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland has several live webcams for you to check out. So spend some time watching the Blacktip Reef, Jellies Invasion, and Pacific Coral Reef habitats.

Observe:
Now that you've had a chance to look at the three different feeds, spend some time focusing on the Blacktip Reef cam. The habitat has two species in class Chondrichthyes, blacktip reef sharks and reticulated* whiptail rays. Can you find both of them? How many species of bony fish (Osteichthyes) can you find? How do the sharks look different from the other fish? Do they swim differently? Do they behave differently; do they tend to swim with other sharks or on their own? Is their behavior different during different times of the day?

*reticulated means the animal has a net-like pattern. Reticulated giraffes and reticulated pythons are some other animals with this name.