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Kids-eye ViewThe funny thing about Scripps Institute for my 8-year-old daughter personally is that her San Diego grandmother says she has been to Scripps Aquarium 84 times and that they have a miniature tidepool. At any rate, I told my daughter maybe she could give a speech on "Tidepools and Towns" while we were hanging out by the miniature tidepool at the aquarium. She has kept me up late during Walker Texas Ranger dictating the following speech:
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TIDEPOOLS AND TOWNS by Gray Merrill The tidepool is a home for animals: shells, crabs, fishes.
Sea anemones and clownfish help each other. They are not enemies. Even though one is posonous, he doesn't sting the other, who eats the bad stuff and in return gets to hide from other creatures like the shark in deep water (where clownfish also hide in sea anemones), and in the tidepool there are all sorts of creatures who prey on the clownfish. Like one (a something-"shell") where if you put your finger inside it, it will squeeze your finger and if your finger was a clownfish, the fish's scales would rub off and then it could eat the clownfish.
Hermit crabs are nice to people, and if you found a hermit crab, they ARE able to be pets. In the tidepools, they usually are found under the water in the ground. They dig holes for themselves and bury themselves in them.
Living shells, if you touched one, they'd be sort of squishy. Do not squeeze one because if you did, they could die.
There are other animals in the sea and in the tidepools. There are over 150 different kinds of animals that live in the tidepools and the seas. If you looked, you could find at least more than 50, if you look hard.
Tidepools are just like the sea except you can walk on them and there is less water. The American Flag is the color of a fish - red, white and blue; it's a new discovery because I heard it in the papers.
If you were going to be an animal who lived in the tidepool, think about what animal you would be: a crab, a lobster, a clownfish, or some other animal that lives there.
If a tidepool were a town, the sea anemone and the clownfish would probably be the police. The hermit crab would be a ranger. The living shell would be a fireman because it can stand fire (since it CAN stand fire very well). The thing that squeezes you finger would be a bad guy. Lobsters would probably be more criminals, because when they pinch, they pinch really hard. Their pinchers are like guns to the other animals in the tidepool.
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Hi, it's Phil again. I have no idea how right or wrong any of my daughter's speech is. It was certainly cute and she managed to stay up late getting all excited, jumping around the room dictating it. Any suggestions for whether she should be allowed to give any sort of speech while we are there next Sunday are welcome. It was just something I said. I also thought having Richard Atkinson's daughter actually ask, about what she needs to do if she is to become a real marine biologist, would give our expert the chance to convey the sort of thing which is on Michael Latz's lab site at:
http://www-siograddept.ucsd.edu/Web/To_Be_A_Marine_Biologist.html Thanks.
PHIL :)
Anna McColl wrote Phil back the following:
Phil:
I shared the story with our staff scientist. We both love it for it's creativity. She has a real flair for storytelling and a great imagination!!!
The story is super cool, but not very accurate science-wise. Our staff reviewer thought that the story was so cute on it's own merits that it would be fine as it stands; with a preamble that it is fiction not fact. We both thought it was so cute.
Good luck this weekend, sorry I won't be around---I'll be in the Sierras.
later, anna
