Introducing my third grade class

amazing torches btw

 

This is a great project! My 9 and 5 year old girls are heavily invloved in the upkeep of my tank as well. It is a great learning experience for them, and they really do get to see the basics of Biology, chemistry, and even physics.

My question for your class - What water parameters are you checking, and how often? PH, ALK, CA, etc.. What kind of test kits are you using? Litmus paper, color comparison, titration method, etc. Can anyone explain the difference?

 

Mr. Rutherford,

Thank you for the response. We did not check out the dissection page. Is it on your website? I will have Ella Blue write Virginia a letter. We will work on it this weekend. Tell the students hi for us.

Coach

 

Hello to all of the third graders taking care of a piece of nature so awesome! I'm thinking many of you may be interested in traveling and seeing a real reef one day. I am so impressed that you all can perform all of these complicated tests and understand their meaning! I sincerely hope this experience will give you not only an appreciation for the oceans but the desire to make sure that they are protected in the future!

I would love to know if the class plans on adding any more to the tank? If so, what things do they find to be the most interesting? Is there a local reef keeping club in the area that may be willing to donate some various coral frags to the tank or perhaps willing to trade since students are fragging.

I would have LOVED something this awesome in my high school class let alone in a third grade classroom!

Congrats to all on doing a great job and having such a beautiful and interesting project in your classroom!

 

Wow, what a great project! Here's a question for your students: Since the ocean is such a unique environment, is there anything that has been a surprise while observing how the corals, fish and invertebrates interact in your tank?

Keep up the good work, third graders!

 

Awesome and congratulations to you and your class. Making learning fun is very important!

 

very cool! kids learning something real! I'd close the top though, in case someone decides to drop a penny in there

 

I have a 2 year old daughter and can't wait to indoctrinate her

We do all of the reef master api tests at least twice weekly, pH, hardness, calcium, phosphates, nitrites, nitrates and ammonia. They involve color comparison and titration. They are easiest (and inexpensive) for them to use. For a while our ph and hardness was swinging around but I brought my reef dynamic calc reactor from home and it stabilized things.

 

Hey there,

Thanks for your support! We'd love to trade some coral with you. We just started fragging today. We have a couple of pretty zoas that we can trade with you, though they'll look nicer once they've grown out a little. Please email me via my website and we'll talk. Our tank is best suited for lps coral but my kids also really like plate or chalice coral (we have one plate and I've shown them pictures of chalice corals)

I look forward to hearing from you,

Brandon

 

The tank is pretty recently set up and my kids are very startled by all of the inverts that are growing. We just had a few baby brittle stars and a starfish show up out of no where. We can see bristle worm tracks on the sustrate in the mornings.

Right now they're crazy about breeding fish. I'm up reading about starting a zoo plankton culture and trying to budget for the set up.

Write us a physical letter and mail it to our address. I promise that a kid will answer any question you can ask.