Marine Science Students Visit Dana Point Tidepools for Enriching Field Study

Upper School Students in Dr. Jennifer-Ross Viola’s marine science class took advantage of a recent mid-day low tide to conduct a field study at the Dana Point tidepools, observing the abundance of life lurking within them.

 

The students, all juniors and seniors, made a short walk north of The Ocean Institute, carrying field guides and tools for conducting tests on the seawater in the intertidal zone. While there, they conducted experiments evaluating changes in the water’s temperature and salinity in high intertidal zone tidepools over time, and searched for life among the rocky tidepools.

 

It was a good day for observing, too—while there, students were able to see brown sea hares, a bat star, a two-spot octopus, pacific mussels, gooseneck barnacles, buckshot barnacles, sunburst sea anemones, aggregating anemones, turban snails, blue-banded hermit crabs, sea palms, surf grass, tidepool sculpin and more.

 

St. Margaret’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean brings valuable experiential-learning possibilities to the marine science class. Dr. Ross-Viola tries to coordinate a visit to the tidepools each year, working with student schedules and, just as importantly, the tide schedules to find an ideal day to visit.

 

Marine science is a semester elective which covers life in a marine environment, the chemical and physical features of sea water, marine ecosystems, anatomy and physiology of marine organisms, and the human impact on the oceans.