From the High School Lesson Book - National Aquarium PhotoJournal

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Field trips are just as great for high schoolers as for young students, but for various reasons we have done fewer trips as my kids have gotten older. When we do get a chance to go on a trip that is fun and relates directly to what we're studying, we jump on it! Such was the case last week when a mom in our homeschool group had organized a trip for us to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. The timing was just about perfect for us, as Kennady was just ready to start studying aquatic life in her Biology 101 course. We made sure to watch that chapter of the DVD and look over some of the notes prior to our visit to the aquarium, and this week we'll be following up with further study of aquatic animals, and I'm hoping some related artwork will appear as well.

When you go on a field trip, you have to take lots of pictures, and I tried to do just that. Getting pictures through aquarium glass and water, and of moving creatures presents a challenge, of course, and I use just a simple camera, so don't expect anything spectacular!



The first exhibit you see when you enter the aquarium is the Blacktip Reef. This huge exhibit is visible from many vantage points, and features sharks, fish, and rays, as well as a green sea turtle.

This whale skeleton is suspended above the Blacktip Reef and gives a bit of perspective on how big some seagoing animals are.

 

There are five levels in this part of the aquarium building (actually, six, since there's also an underwater viewing area), so that first view is Level 1. Next up is the Maryland: Mountains to the Sea exhibit which features animals in the streams, marshes, beaches, and coastal waters of Maryland. Then on Level 3 there is a Living Seashore exhibit which continues showing off Mid-Atlantic shore life. And there's a couple of touchpools that allow visitors to touch horseshoe crabs, whelks, stingrays, skates, and moon jellies.

Atlantic Stingray

Moon Jelly Touchpool

Also seen on Level 3 - Electric eels, Chambered Nautilus, octopus, seahorses, and many other fish.

electric eel

Longsnout Seahorse

anemones

Level 4 brings you face to face with marine life of the sea cliffs, kelp forests, Pacific coral reefs, and the Amazon River forest.

Coral Reef

Coral Reef

Emerald Tree Boa

This curmudgeonly fellow is a Silver Arowana from the Amazon River Forest.

I don't remember what kind of fish this guy is, but he seems much more friendly.

Although we saw the puffins, their exhibit is behind glass which is covered with water droplets, making it pretty difficult to get a decent picture. Instead I took pictures of the pictures on the informational display!

At this point, we took our lunch break, so we could eat and get back in time for a dolphin show.

Using the moving walkway as a treadmill. Goof.

The Dolphin Discovery exhibit is in the Pier 4 building of the aquarium complex. We were able to sit in on a regular training and exercise session with the dolphins during an educator talk. There are eight bottlenose dolphins at the aquarium, six females and two males.

Kennady and friends

Also in Pier 4 is a dining area, currently decorated with this jellyfish theme.

So next was the Jellyfish Invasion exhibit, which was fascinating, and I was a little surprised by how much time we all spent there. And how many pictures we took. These are only a few of mine!

If I remember correctly, these are Blue Blubber Jellies.

Moon Jelly

Pacific Sea Nettles

Upside-Down Jellies

Atlantic Sea Nettle

Don't remember the species name, but this
jelly glows in the dark!

Back to the Blue Wonders Building, to finish with the topmost level, the Tropical Rain Forest. This waterfall is seen right at the entrance of the aquarium, from the bottom -

and from the top, from the rainforest exhibit.

In the rain forest area, there are frogs, sloths, taramins, tortoises, and several kinds of birds. 

Golden Lion Tamarin

Yellow-headed Amazon Parrot

The way back down to the main level takes visitors through the Atlantic Coral Reef and Shark Alley.

We found this little guy in the reef, and he really seemed to want attention!

 

Largetooth Sawfish

And finally, to end our visit, we headed to the Glass Pavilion and the Australia Wild Extremes exhibit.

In addition to Australian fish, like this one (again, I don't remember the species, but it looks pretty much done with everything!), there are plenty of birds and reptiles.

There is an Australian fish named Mouth Almighty. Too funny!

We had a whale of a time on our visit!

Official group photo of Kennady and friends.

And a silly picture too.

They couldn't talk us into buying Moray Eel
stuffies, but it was fine to pose for a picture.

Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end of this really long photojournal post! Have you been on any field trips yet this year? And what are you studying in Science? Leave a comment and let me know! Then please link your posts about homeschooling high school here - I'd love to see what you are working on! Also, please visit your neighbors and leave some encouraging comments!

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