Student Activities

1.   Crab Lab. After measuring the crabs' heart rates when they are first put in their tanks, design two experiments that you think will help them to relax. It will be important that you use controls for your experiments so that you have a standard of comparison.  (Remember that crabs are very visual creatures, and are stimulated by what they see. Also think about what their natural environment is like.)  As time allows, record their heart rates every ten minutes to see if they become less stressed during your experiments. Summarize and explain your results.

2.   Bioindicator Blitz. Working in small groups, pretend that you are scientists competing for a $50,000 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop the best marine bioindicator.  By using the internet, find out what other organisms are used as indicators of pollution in the marine environment. Choose one and design a presentation that would convince the EPA that your organism, based on your research, shows the most promise as the best potential bioindicator. Make sure you can defend your arguments based on the research you uncovered on the Internet. (You may want to search for “bioindicators” “indicator species” “biomarkers” or “environmental indicators.”)