Changi Beach + Practical = GOOD COMBI !!!
I really enjoyed myself today... Though the previous day I was in club room helping out with some brochures and slept rather early, like 3am. But today's practical was so fun that you just want to continue with it...
Once we reached Changi beach, we gathered at a point to settle down. Only bringing our notes, 9 groups set off covering with a 100m radius perimeter. We covered zones such as supralittoral, littoral and sublittoral. Different zones implicate different adaptations that animals and plants have. E.g. For a Swimming crab, in a sublittoral (in the sea) zone, it's last pincers and last pair of legs have "spade" like features to burrow itself into the sand. It hides from it's predator and only leaving it's eyes over the suface of the sand, making it very difficult to spot it. It is non-ferocious and thus explains it's camoflouge abilities. It would want to hide/swim away from it's predator than stand and fight. Swimming crabs are Anthropoda and can moult. Sometimes you can find their shells in the shore lines after they have moult. However, one sad thing about Swimming crabs is that it may have a parasite growing on it. This parasite, Rhizocephalan/parasite barnacle(a female) will attach themselves to the crab's shell and pierce through the shell with it's roots. The parasite in the process deteriotes the latter's metabolism properties(I think so). Once the parasite is ready to reproduce, it will lay it's eggs in the abdomen of the crab and when the eggs hatch, they burst out from the crab abdomen(the triangle shaped bottom if we see from below). Freaky huh?!! It's like the movie Alien.. Has the same idea but only happening to the poor Swimming crab... sob sob... =~~~~~~(
Anyway, enough of crabs, after visiting the littoral zone, it was time for us to GET WET!!!! YEAH!!!! Our TA(teaching assistant) instructed on how to use the net. The net is a simple net, forgotten the name of it, but it has a pocket in the middle of it. the bottom is the sinker which has some weighted chains on it and the top is the float which has.... floats... hahaha... So we were to step on the sinker and move towards the shore, perpendicularly, until it is near enough to pull it to shore. You will never imagine what we manage to find in the net. We found like tripod fish, tube fish, scopian fish(ohh be careful.. very poisonous), prawns, shrimps, other fishes, baracuda, etc... Can you imagine how many things were under you when you go into the sea? BARE FOOTED!!! Oh do be careful of scorpian fishes, there were alot of them now because it's mating season... After placing a few specimens into a pail of sea water, we returned the rest back to the sea.
We viewed more specimens in the next station. There were cow fish/box fish, sole fish, fishes that have counter-shading abilities, jelly fish, sea urchins, etc... SO FUN!!! SO CUTE!!!! But most importantly, we never forget and did remember to bring back the lessons learnt for today. Anyway, we must bring back these important info because next week there's an essay on this... hahaha... Oh yeah, two weeks later it's ZOO VISIT!!!! WOO HOO!!!! YeAh!!! Can't wait for that day... After practical, I took the first bus back to school to wash up and rest.
My rest wasn't for long when I needed to help out some stuff for open house tomorrow. Wah.. So many things to do... Everytime I was about to leave then I was asked to help out in something.. I'm not complaining, it's hard to decline a request since they are your friends... Hahaha... Anyway, I did everything without any complaints... I went bac home about 9plus because I really needed to be home. Already spent a night in school, cannot stay over night again... Not enough clothes anyway... Hahaha...
That's all for today.. I'm signing off and God Speed...
Tired drowsy Happy
The Mixed Boy
Once we reached Changi beach, we gathered at a point to settle down. Only bringing our notes, 9 groups set off covering with a 100m radius perimeter. We covered zones such as supralittoral, littoral and sublittoral. Different zones implicate different adaptations that animals and plants have. E.g. For a Swimming crab, in a sublittoral (in the sea) zone, it's last pincers and last pair of legs have "spade" like features to burrow itself into the sand. It hides from it's predator and only leaving it's eyes over the suface of the sand, making it very difficult to spot it. It is non-ferocious and thus explains it's camoflouge abilities. It would want to hide/swim away from it's predator than stand and fight. Swimming crabs are Anthropoda and can moult. Sometimes you can find their shells in the shore lines after they have moult. However, one sad thing about Swimming crabs is that it may have a parasite growing on it. This parasite, Rhizocephalan/parasite barnacle(a female) will attach themselves to the crab's shell and pierce through the shell with it's roots. The parasite in the process deteriotes the latter's metabolism properties(I think so). Once the parasite is ready to reproduce, it will lay it's eggs in the abdomen of the crab and when the eggs hatch, they burst out from the crab abdomen(the triangle shaped bottom if we see from below). Freaky huh?!! It's like the movie Alien.. Has the same idea but only happening to the poor Swimming crab... sob sob... =~~~~~~(
Anyway, enough of crabs, after visiting the littoral zone, it was time for us to GET WET!!!! YEAH!!!! Our TA(teaching assistant) instructed on how to use the net. The net is a simple net, forgotten the name of it, but it has a pocket in the middle of it. the bottom is the sinker which has some weighted chains on it and the top is the float which has.... floats... hahaha... So we were to step on the sinker and move towards the shore, perpendicularly, until it is near enough to pull it to shore. You will never imagine what we manage to find in the net. We found like tripod fish, tube fish, scopian fish(ohh be careful.. very poisonous), prawns, shrimps, other fishes, baracuda, etc... Can you imagine how many things were under you when you go into the sea? BARE FOOTED!!! Oh do be careful of scorpian fishes, there were alot of them now because it's mating season... After placing a few specimens into a pail of sea water, we returned the rest back to the sea.
We viewed more specimens in the next station. There were cow fish/box fish, sole fish, fishes that have counter-shading abilities, jelly fish, sea urchins, etc... SO FUN!!! SO CUTE!!!! But most importantly, we never forget and did remember to bring back the lessons learnt for today. Anyway, we must bring back these important info because next week there's an essay on this... hahaha... Oh yeah, two weeks later it's ZOO VISIT!!!! WOO HOO!!!! YeAh!!! Can't wait for that day... After practical, I took the first bus back to school to wash up and rest.
My rest wasn't for long when I needed to help out some stuff for open house tomorrow. Wah.. So many things to do... Everytime I was about to leave then I was asked to help out in something.. I'm not complaining, it's hard to decline a request since they are your friends... Hahaha... Anyway, I did everything without any complaints... I went bac home about 9plus because I really needed to be home. Already spent a night in school, cannot stay over night again... Not enough clothes anyway... Hahaha...
That's all for today.. I'm signing off and God Speed...
Tired drowsy Happy
The Mixed Boy
posted by -=The Mixed Boy=- at 3/10/2006 11:38:00 PM
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