softballgirl96: May 2010

Recently, my class went on a trip to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. There, we walked around to various exhibits, learning about different sea creatures. We even were able to touch a few of them. The reason we went on this trip was that we had just finished our unit on animals in science. Some of which included sponges, cnidarians, and echinoderms, all of which were able to be seen at the aquarium and much more. This field trip enhanced our knowledge of the creatures and helped us better understand information on others. There are three exhibits, though, that I found most fascinating.

The first exhibit I found extremely intriguing was the "Creature Lab". This involved standing on a line and waiting to enter an area filled with tanks. These tanks were low and shallow enough for you to be able to stick your arm in. At this location, you would use two fingers to gently touch the animal, depending which tank you were at. There were sting rays, jelly fish, and a few other animals that you could touch. The ones I personally found most interesting, though, were the jellyfish. They bobbed up and down in the tank and felt very soft and delicate. However, as I felt the exterior of the animal, I realized that it was more hard than I expected. I had thought it would be very squishy, where you could easily make an imprint with your fingers, but I was proved wrong. Though I had learned about cnidarians in class, I was able to discover something new.

The second attraction I enjoyed was "The Jules Verne Gallery". The reason this struck me as interesting was that I had recently read a passage about this author. I was amazed by the murals on the walls of several exotic creatures that I assumed were used in his novels. On the other hand, there was a live animal that looked insanely unique, thus, I had to learn more about it. Unfortunately, though, I could not remember the name of this crab. I looked all over the websites, and could only come up with the Japanese Spider Crab. After doing a bit of research online, assuming from my memory that this was the one I saw at the aquarium, I learned that this animal's natural habitat is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Thus, this would very much explain why I have not seen this crab around. Furthermore, the third exhibit I appreciated was "Hippos". The two that were in the tank looked very calm and happy as they sat in the warm water. On the contrary, these were not the only animals in the tank. There were also thousands of colorful fish, some of which were actually on top of the hippos. The fish that were there were lightly sucking the ticks, parasites, and dead skin off of them. This is known as a symbiotic relationship. In fact, there were also birds at this location, most likely to take everything off when the hippopotami weren't in the water. In summation, I had learned a great deal of information while attending this trip to Adventure Aquarium, and I felt that this was very much worth going on.

In my opinion, this field trip to Adventure Aquarium in Camden was an enlightening experience. Not only did I get to further my knowledge on the animals I learned about previously, but I also received the chance to touch them. Granted, we do labs back at school, but it is still thrilling to get a simple day out of the year to learn in a different way. Plus, watching all of these creatures in their replicated habitats is fascinating and in the end will further our scientific knowledge on them. This trip was most definitely fun and at the same time educational. I would most certainly return to this location if I received the chance to. All in all, this was a knowledge-enhancing experience and these three exhibits were the ones I found to be the most intriguing along with my opinion.

Further Research Sources:

http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/marine/crabs/crabs_japspider.html

http://www.livnaked.com/the-hippo-and-the-human/

Picture:

http://media.nj.com/route_45/photo/hippos2jpg-03d66c1e124f9a1f.jpg