The Coral Reef Project At Stratton Elementary School

DeniseAndy · Feb 29, 2016

NBcoralreef said:
Hello R2R,
On Friday, we went to Shedd Aquarium for a field trip. I saw a variety of fishes and other sea creatures there. I liked the garden eels and learnt that they protect themselves from predators by burrowing in the sand,tail first. Isn't that amazing? Can they be kept in home aquariums?

They are actually very difficult to keep and take a very specific type of tank. I believe a few hobbyists have kept them, but they need special sand and large deep bed and specific foods. I love them too.

chickofthesea · Mar 1, 2016

DeniseAndy said:
They are actually very difficult to keep and take a very specific type of tank. I believe a few hobbyists have kept them, but they need special sand and large deep bed and specific foods. I love them too.

I love them also. So cool.

chickofthesea · Mar 1, 2016

Brandon Rutherford said:
The unsung hero of the trip was the R2R member chickofthesea (Cass). Cass has volunteered on the project for the last year and is an all around super nice person. One of our students got extremely sick halfway during the bus ride to chicago. They had never been on a trip away from home and was extremely upset and scared. The student lives with an extend family member that doesn't have a working home and need a parent to take care of them. Cass sat with the student in the Shedd visitor office the entire time and her cheerful attitude and motherliness was crucial to helping the kid feel calm and supported.

I did what any mother would do. And may I remind you that you literally gave the student (whos name is also Brandon) the shirt off your back, which he threw up on. lol I hope little Brandon feels better by now though.

Brandon Rutherford · Mar 4, 2016

I've been working with more primary and early childhood classes and it's been very interesting to observe how they view marine biology. As I mentioned, kindergarten classes at Stratton are doing a two week long jellyfish study as part of a longer, 'under the sea' unit. I've been pushing into classrooms for regular Q&A and it's been a hoot.

I have two pre school classes coming in to work with my students tomorrow on my coral reef project. It should be pretty exciting. I hope I can share photos of it.

Brandon Rutherford · Mar 4, 2016

We've finally got a good batch of eggs on a removable object, a lot of Rotifers and a relative amount of free time on my part. Really hope to try to raise our saddle back clownfish larva. Any advice?

Brandon Rutherford · Mar 4, 2016

Here's a better picture of the jellyfish art rank I recently set up in a pre school classroom.

We've been collecting inverts from the filters of our larger reef systems to help create a mini cleanup crew for this tank.

Brandon Rutherford · Mar 4, 2016

We've also been doing a bunch of reef themed water color paintings after school. Aislin in particular is a great artist and her work is definitely wall worthy? Anyone want one? PM me your address and I'll mail one to your for free.

chickofthesea · Mar 4, 2016

nice !

Brandon Rutherford said:
Here's a better picture of the jellyfish art rank I recently set up in a pre school classroom.

We've been collecting inverts from the filters of our larger reef systems to help create a mini cleanup crew for this tank.

chickofthesea · Mar 4, 2016

Brandon Rutherford said:
I've been working with more primary and early childhood classes and it's been very interesting to observe how they view marine biology. As I mentioned, kindergarten classes at Stratton are doing a two week long jellyfish study as part of a longer, 'under the sea' unit. I've been pushing into classrooms for regular Q&A and it's been a hoot.

I have two pre school classes coming in to work with my students tomorrow on my coral reef project. It should be pretty exciting. I hope I can share photos of it.

Brandon Rutherford said:
We've also been doing a bunch of reef themed water color paintings after school. Aislin in particular is a great artist and her work is definitely wall worthy? Anyone want one? PM me your address and I'll mail one to your for free.

Brandon Rutherford said:
I want an Aislin original masterpiece please.

We've also been doing a bunch of reef themed water color paintings after school. Aislin in particular is a great artist and her work is definitely wall worthy? Anyone want one? PM me your address and I'll mail one to your for free.

chickofthesea · Mar 4, 2016

Brandon Rutherford said:
I've been working with more primary and early childhood classes and it's been very interesting to observe how they view marine biology. As I mentioned, kindergarten classes at Stratton are doing a two week long jellyfish study as part of a longer, 'under the sea' unit. I've been pushing into classrooms for regular Q&A and it's been a hoot.

I have two pre school classes coming in to work with my students tomorrow on my coral reef project. It should be pretty exciting. I hope I can share photos of it.

if you need another set of hand txt me and i'll come. I'm free.

DeniseAndy · Mar 4, 2016

This is great. I love it!

NBcoralreef · Mar 4, 2016

Thank you so much for the hydrometer Cass.

It will help to test the salinity in my tank. BTW I added a chocolate chip starfish (Scientific Name : Protoreastor nodosus)to my tank. Thanks again Mr. Rutherford.

The clownfish in my tank are loving the LRS Reef Frenzy food.

Brandon Rutherford · Mar 4, 2016

Nipun and several of my project leaders helped me host two preschool classes in our room today. We had learning centers where students viewed the reef tank in my room, looked at number of different invertebrates under microscopes and examined coral skeletons. The pre school kids have had a nano tank in their room for a week now and I was shocked about how many of the things they have already learned.

Touching the starfish and urchins were by far the favorite activities. Some of the younger students were very intrigued with the pencil urchin and how it compared to the other short spine urchins in my tank. I tried to spread the touching out over all of the different invertebrates I could catch but they still received a little bit of a mauling from two dozen grubby kid hands. I forgot how often young kids put their hands in their mouth and nose.

They also had a lot of fun picking through some of my chaeto looking for brittle stars and copepods. This little girl in red was super cute and asked all kinds of intelligent questions. She kept comparing the algae to her bushy hair and my kids couldn't stop giggling.

I'm also super proud of how my students took these younger kids under their wing, patiently fielding all of their questions and making them feel welcome.

And everyone got Benepets coral food cards as a take home present. Benepets just donated some of their high end coral food and I can't wait to try it out.

chickofthesea · Mar 5, 2016

NBcoralreef said:
Thank you so much for the hydrometer Cass. It will help to test the salinity in my tank. BTW I added a chocolate chip starfish (Scientific Name : Protoreastor nodosus)to my tank. Thanks again Mr. Rutherford. The clownfish in my tank are loving the LRS Reef Frenzy food.

You are welcome Nipun. It looks like your tank is doing great, your water is crystal clear. I love it.

chickofthesea · Mar 5, 2016

NBcoralreef said:
Thank you so much for the hydrometer Cass. It will help to test the salinity in my tank. BTW I added a chocolate chip starfish (Scientific Name : Protoreastor nodosus)to my tank. Thanks again Mr. Rutherford. The clownfish in my tank are loving the LRS Reef Frenzy food.

chickofthesea · Mar 5, 2016

Here is a few pics of my tank. The frogspawn is from the tank in your class room. Its doing great. Thank you for it.

NBcoralreef · Mar 6, 2016

chickofthesea said:
Here is a few pics of my tank. The frogspawn is from the tank in your class room. Its doing great. Thank you for it.

Wow! Your tank is really cool,especially the frogspawn coral. You have good collection of coral and fish. Do you have more fish? If you do,please name them. Also what is the name of the fish in the picture above?

chickofthesea · Mar 7, 2016

NBcoralreef said:
Wow! Your tank is really cool,especially the frogspawn coral. You have good collection of coral and fish. Do you have more fish? If you do,please name them. Also what is the name of the fish in the picture above?

I only have 4 fish right now. There isn't much swimming room left in there at the moment. I do want to add a chalk basslet. I used to have one but my plate coral got hungry. Maybe after Mr Rutherford drills my new tank and I get it up and running, i'll be able to add a few more fish. The fish you are talking about in the picture was sold to me as a kings damsel fish."He" needs to go on a diet. LOL I find that it is not as territorial as most damsels. It's actually a pretty chill fish. I've had it for about five years. My oldest fish is a clarkii clown I have had "him" for 10 years. My other fish is a green chromie about two years old I'd say. I try to buy fish not in danger of outgrowing my system. You guys gave me a fox face rabbit fish but I couldn't bear to see it swim back and forth in my little 75 gallon so I rehomed it. I gave it to a buisness that has a gigantic tank. They named him smiley. I go visit him. He's doing great there. The name of the store is Premier Sound and Design on Prospect ave. I told the owner he came from your school. Did I mention I think you are an awesome kid? See you again soon.