Terranaut Club Junior Field Trip: Fantastic Beasts of the Bay of Fundy

Ocean Week Fundy

June 6th 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM

Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Join us for a day of hands-on learning in Wolfville about the “fantastic beasts” big and small that inhabit the Bay of Fundy, including mud shrimp, semi-palmated sandpipers, Atlantic sturgeon, and white sharks! We’ll take water quality samples, learn about bird and shark citizen science programs, assist in a sturgeon dissection, and get crafty!

DETAILS:

Date: Saturday, June 6
Time: 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Location: At Acadia University’s Biology Building in Wolfville
Who can join: For girls and gender diverse youth ages 9-12
Participants: Maximum 15 participants
Cost: Pay-what-you-can

ACTIVITIES:

WATER QUALITY MONITORING & MUD SHRIMP SAMPLING: We’ll collect mud and water samples from the mudflats off of the Wolfville Waterfront Park for water quality monitoring, and to search for mud shrimp under dissection microscopes at our next location, the biology labs up the street at Acadia University.
NATURE REFLECTION: We’ll do a short nature activity that encourages participants to reflect on and connect with the incredible ecosystem that is the Bay of Fundy.
THREATENED SPECIES SPECIMENS AND CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS: We’ll learn about endangered semi-palmated sandpipers and white sharks that migrate through the Bay each year and rely on this ecosystem for food, observing taxidermied specimens of sandpipers and shark jaws supplied by Acadia’s Wildlife Museum, and will look at online maps of local reports through the citizen science Birds Canada platform and OCEARCH Shark Tracker app.
ASSIST IN A STURGEON DISSECTION: We’ll take part in a group dissection of a threatened Atlantic sturgeon specimen and learn about how this enormous and frightening-looking fish, just like white sharks, are gravely misunderstood and in need of our protection.
TRADING CARDS ART: We’ll make trading card-like drawings of participants’ favourite species of the day that highlights their unique adaptations and significance to the local ecosystem.