Low budget marine Investigation kit Seawater experiments in your

Low budget marine Investigation kit
Seawater experiments in your classroom
Students design an investigation
unit with low budget materials.
They monitor the water quality,
grow phytoplankton or artemia
(brine shrimp), measure the
filter capacity of shellfish or the
feeding habit of bristle worms.
Hans Mulder
Jan Tinbergen College,
Roosendaal (The Netherlands)
Subject areas:
Biology, General science
Contact information:
Hans Mulder:
hmu@jtc-roosendaal.nl
Patrik Voermans:
pvo@jtc-roosendaal.nl
Farming at sea
Research at school
Investigation opportunities
The main part of the earth is covered
The project offers a variety of
Try to grow a maximum amount of
with salt water. The amount of
research opportunities. With
phytoplankton with a minimum of
available farmland is probably
materials whose costs vary from 20
nutrients, measure the filter capacity
insufficient to feed the world
to 50 euros, it is possible to build a
of clams or find the best food for
population in the future. It is
research unit in which students
bristle worms with a small ecological
therefore obvious to investigate the
conduct research at a marine system.
footprint. Study brine shrimp
potential of agriculture and livestock
The water quality can be monitored,
(Artemia salina) bristle worms (Nereis
farming at sea.
the growth rate of algae can be
virens) and mussels (Mytilus edulis).
With this in mind we developed a
studied under the influence of
Students can do closed tasks but this
series of seawater experiments for
various variables, such as light or
setup is extremely useful for open
our students.
nitrogen content.
assignments.