Students at our comprehensive high school have the opportunity to participate in some unique programs. They are talented, inquisitive, and always seeking new learning challenges. The Aquarium Club works to maintain a large network of over 30 aquariums in our school. They take pride in their work as they create interactive, living displays that are used to teach about biology, ecology, and environmental science.
Students in our oceanography and aquarium science programs complete unique, interesting projects related to saltwater aquaculture.
We have students from both rural and urban settings and of varied socioeconomic backgrounds who come together in a great learning environment.
My Project
My students are excellent at growing coral in our large reef aquarium system at our school. We have over 50 tanks with hundreds of varieties of coral - one of the largest collections in the country! We're always interested in learning what allows coral to grow as quickly as possible. Doing so helps us understand coral life cycles and how coral adapt to various ocean conditions.
We are going to use this equipment and materials to cut coral colonies into fragments of various sizes, weigh the fragments, allow them to grow, and chart their increase in mass and number of branches.
The balance allows us to check weights, the microscope allows us to see the growth patterns, and the other items are used for cutting and gluing the coral onto mounting plugs.
This project-based approach gives students real-life experience with how science is actually performed in the field and in the lab. We are also going to use the eFlux pump to set up a new type of linear flow aquarium to see if constant, one way wave stress allows coral to grow faster than usual
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