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Science Sunday: Shrimp

January 15, 2012 Ticia 14 Comments

I just heard about a linky sponsored by Apologia Science, so I’m gonna link this up to Homeschool Science Show and Tell!

I’m kinda thinking I need a “grocery science” category, because as I was finishing up our science experiment for the week I realized a large majority of our science experiments come from there.

001Case in point.  This week we were reading about different crustaceans, and I thought excellent let’s check out the lobsters at the store.

We had a lot of fun observing the different parts and remembering why the water is cold (keeps the lobsters complacent and from needing to eat).

I asked if we could touch the lobsters, but they’re not allowed to touch except with gloves on, and I was rather expecting that answer, but figured I’d give it a shot.

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That night after dinner we explored the 6 shrimp I got after looking at the lobsters.  I considered getting some crab too (what a great excuse to get crab, right?), but the crab is already cut in half and doesn’t have the exoskeleton on it.  Kinda takes away some of the science lesson, and thus my excuse to get crab.

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We went through and looked at their swimmerets, and discussed their exoskeleton, which is tough and brittle.  Then we looked at the tail, talked about it for awhile.

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Jeff joined in the lesson at this point, and after having pulled the tail off one, pointed out the long thin brown thing you can see in the picture (thank goodness for zoom).  That is the shrimp’s lower intestine.  Then we talked about how the butcher (or someone else) had already taken the head off and removed most of the organs.

Let me tell you that was the most fascinating thing EVER to them.

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Afterwards they filled out the lapbook portion about shrimp and drew pictures.  Oh, and they all stole Jeff’s shrimp.  Back when we were on our Christmas trip they all tried shrimp and swore they didn’t like it.  On Wednesday when I only got a little they all decided they loved it and stole all of poor Jeff’s shrimp.

Here’s a few fun ideas from this past weeks link-ups:

Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational has a fun way to learn about spiders (I know my boys would love this).

All Things Beautiful did an experiment with the connection between taste and smell (FYI one of my boys has those same jammies).

Learning Ideas K-8 has a fun anemometer, homemade wind speed measurer.  I didn’t know you could make one at home.

And one last one:

The Learning Hypothesis gave us a link to the science behind play dough.

science grocery store science, observation, Science Sunday, swimming creatures, zoology

Comments

  1. Crisc says

    January 15, 2012 at 11:35 am

    Great project. The linky is open for me to link up =)

    https://www.nextgenhomeschooler.com/2012/01/15/letter-w/ Walking Water

    Reply
  2. Crisc says

    January 15, 2012 at 11:36 am

    *isnt

    Reply
  3. Mary Prather says

    January 15, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    Hi there! Cool activities with the shrimp! I'm going to have to remember this one, because my kids would think that was cool, too.

    I want to link up, but the linky isn't open??

    Reply
  4. Christy says

    January 15, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    Cool! Well, cool in an educational sense. I happen to think that shrimp are GROSS! I gagged at the intestine – yes, I'm a big baby like that.

    Reply
  5. Ticia says

    January 15, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    Okay, got it all fixed now. I had misentered the date, and put it in for last week.

    Reply
  6. Kelly says

    January 15, 2012 at 1:46 pm

    I love your hands on approach to your crustacean unit!
    Little Wonders' Days

    Reply
  7. Susan says

    January 15, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    My girls love to look at the lobster tank in the grocery store 🙂 That shrimp is nasty! UGH! Great project idea, though. Kids always love the gross stuff 😉

    Reply
  8. Deceptively Educational says

    January 15, 2012 at 2:44 pm

    Thanks a ton for featuring out spider craft! It was SUCH a fun hands-on way to teach about the anatomy of a these 8-legged creatures!

    Reply
  9. MaryAnne says

    January 15, 2012 at 6:51 pm

    What a great hands-on activity! The grocery store is a great place to get science supplies =)

    Reply
  10. An Almost Unschooling Mom says

    January 15, 2012 at 11:30 pm

    You know you're a homeschooler when you pick your dinner according to how educational the prep will be 🙂

    Reply
  11. Raising a Happy Child says

    January 16, 2012 at 3:47 am

    Leah's comment cracked me up. I distinctly remember catching and boiling shrimp during one of my first trips to the Black Sea. It was very fascinating to watch them turn pink and then dismember them. I was about the age of Princess at the time 🙂

    Reply
  12. Debbie says

    January 16, 2012 at 3:52 am

    Leah's comment cracked me up, but I have found myself doing the same thing. Funny thing here Selena handled the Crab, but not the shrimp. I teased Papa that next time I will get live crab and boil them. He prohibits that!

    Reply
  13. Rendla says

    January 16, 2012 at 5:49 pm

    Red Lobster lets kids touch and even hold lobsters.

    Reply
  14. Michelle says

    March 28, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    These ideas are so creative! Love the shrimp activities–it's never too early to get our children used to doing “dissections”/hands-on observation. I remember in school it was the dreaded 7th grade science activity. But observing God's creation should be hands-on like this. Hmmm, I just might need to do this one with my daughter.

    Thanks for linking up with the Apologia link-up.
    Michelle
    Apologia Educational

    Reply

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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