Science Class

Mrs. Spot the Woodpile school teacher wanted to take her class on a field trip to the ocean to learn about marine life. The parents (who had watched too many reruns of Gilligan’s Island) were concerned their little ‘munks would be swept out to sea. So, the field trip got cancelled. However, our ever resourceful school teacher, approached Merry and myself. She said she needed a couple of brave souls to go on a “dangerous mission.” We immediately volunteered before we even knew what the mission was. Mrs. Spot deputized Merry as an assistant science teacher for the day. Merry was going to do a virtual class from the beach while I ran the video camera. That sounded easy enough.

We arrived at the beach on the coldest day yet in March. It was 23 degrees with a 25 mph wind making it feel like 15 degrees. I had to stick the extra camera batteries in my cheek pouches to keep them warm and prevent the cold from draining them. Mrs. Spot wanted to find some ice. That seemed like a strange request given the ocean is full of SALT water. Merry wandered over to the stone jetty and spotted some ice on the top most stones.

Merry pointed out it had not rained in over a week and the previous few days had been above freezing. He asked the class how the ice could’ve formed so high on the rocks above the tide line? A lively discussion followed as everyone tried to figure out this puzzle.

As we discussed it, Merry and myself heard a deafen roar followed by an ear splitting crashing sound. Water came flying over the top of the rocks barely missing us by inches. The ocean decided to answer the question for us. The ice was formed by spray from the ocean waves.

We scurried off the rocks at warp speed. The Coast Guard thought we had been swept out to sea and a search plane circled overhead looking for us. We waved to plane to let them know we were okay and they returned to base.

We stopped to catch our breath on the beach. We looked down on the sand and saw these tracks almost as big as us. Oh great, we escaped being washed out to sea only to be eaten by an unknown predator. Merry was cool, calm and collected. He immediately asked the class to look through their field guide to identify the tracks. The students quickly identified the tracks as belonging to a gull. According to the description they didn’t eat chipmunks. Phew!

We continued walking down the beach and encountered these strange marks in the sand. One of the students remarked it looked like the surface of Mars. Merry said that was a great observation. This a channel formed in the sand from water running off the beach. (Does this mean there was water on Mars? I wonder if we will meet little green alien chipmunks someday?)

Wandering along the edge of water, we found this really strange blob. Mrs. Spot asked Merry to describe it. It was semi-transparent with tentacle like strings evenly spaced on the blob. Merry touched it and it felt like a ball of jello except it wasn’t sticky. No one had any idea what it was, so, we sent photos to the Seacoast Science Center. Their expert identified it as a “Sea Gooseberry” a type of comb jelly fish. 

 

A flock of sandpipers wandered by. They kept sticking their long beaks into the sand. What a bizarre behavior. Merry explained they were using their beaks to find larvae, worms, and small creatures in the sand to eat. Wow, the sand beneath our feet is teaming with life, that’s a bit creepy!

Merry asked the class what organism used to live in this bivalve shell? Mrs. Spot called on one of the students to answer the question but he clammed up because he had forgotten to read the homework assignment.

I was all excited when Merry discovered this pile of metalwork and netting. I was convinced we had found the wreck of a pirate ship full of treasure. No, according to Merry this was a lobster trap that washed ashore.

Merry showed me that it had nylon rope which was invented long after the last pirate ship.

Merry saw how disappointed I was, so, he found some “treasure” for me, a sand dollar.