Rotifers, copepods, and phantom midges share our lakes. Take a trip on a 28-foot pontoon boat to study these and other zooplankton and discover their place in the lake’s food web. Student teams collect plankton samples and look at them under magnification back on land with a high definition projection microscope. All data are posted on the Science Center’s website for teachers to compare with results from past years. Program includes a thirty minute virtual introduction scheduled a few days prior to your visit.
Microscopic Mysteries
- Program Type: School
- Duration: 120 min.
- Environment: Outdoors
- Location: SLNSC
- Ages: Grade 5
- Availability: Fall, Spring, Summer
Next Generation Science Standards Connections
- 5-PS3-1. Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, and motion and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.
- 5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
- 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
- 5-ESS2-1 Earth’s Systems – Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
- 5-ESS2-2 Earth’s Systems – Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.
- 5-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity – Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.