Meet the Scientist: Reyhan Mehran, Marine Biologist

Coloring a 20 foot great white shark is exhausting.

K students research sea critters to see if they can live in the class aquarium. With the support of staff and parent volunteers Jia and Jillian, each student has a chance to use books and the internet to find out about their animal of choice. Ranging from jellies to sea stars to great white sharks, students wind up making a life size model of their animals.

Students wrote about questions that they still had.

How do shells get on the ground?

How does the water go?

How does Reyhan know/learn about animals?

How does the ocean get its water?

For the second year in a row,  Reyhan Mehran, a parent and a marine biologist showed up to answer student questions.  (A favorite:  How many people have walked on the beach?)

Reyhan mobbed by scientist groupies.

More Questions:

Viggo:  How do you become a fish scientist?

How Fish Learn

Elliott:  Do daddy sharks take care of baby sharks?

Meitar:  How do baby fish learn to take care of their babies when they get older?

Danielle:  How do fish communicate together?

Fish & Feelings

Oliver:  Fish sad?  blue?

August:  Do fish have feelings...like sad or happy?

Fish Behavior

Zachary: Why do fish swim in different directions?  Do fish sleep?

Who Lives Where?

Devon: Are there fish that live under the sand?

Kai: Are there snakes that live in the sand?

Thea: Can sea creatures live in the sand?

Makua:  Why do some fish need salt water?

Julius:  How long do crabs live out of the water?

Types of and Numbers of Animals that live in ocean

Julian:  What animals live in the ocean?

Dashwood:  How many fish live in the ocean?

Penelope:  How many people have walked on the sand?  WOW!!!!

Nola:  What kinds of birds live in the ocean?

Food 

Benji:  Why do sharks eat big animals like eels or moose?  Why not little animals...like little fish?

Avery:  What does a rainbow fish eat?

SHELLS...How do shells help animals?

Aurora:  What are shells made of and how do they get bigger?

Clare:  What kind of animals live in shells?  

Amelia:  How do you know what kind of animal lived in a shell?