Secret Lives and Surprising Science!!
One major goal of the striped bass initiative is to provide a forum for students to ask questions, to develop hypotheses, and to devise ways to test the hypotheses. More information about research projects conducted at the MBL can be found at stripedbassmagic.org unert the heading Surprising Science.
Since 2015, more than 260 individuals have been introduced to the science behind the ecosystem of which striped bass are a part. Students follow the bass as they migrate more than 1,000 miles round-trip and learn how the animals interact with other organisms in their ecosystem, the technology used to research marine life, and how human activity affects the striped bass and their food web.
Classroom material developed by students and teachers as well as lesson plan links are available in the Curriculum section of the site. A number of examples of student and teacher involvement in the striped bass initiative at the Marine Biological Laboratory are listed below.
More information can be found at stripedbassmagic.org.
Join us in the striped bass adventure! If interested please contact Scott Bennett ([email protected]).
Please consider donating to this outreach initiative so that it can continue and grow.
1. School Visits
Six University of Chicago students and their instructor, Andy Gillis (camera in hand)
Six students participating in the Diversity Module of the University of Chicago’s Spring Quarter in Biology, visited with Steve Zottoli and Scott Bennett on May 2, 2023, to discuss ongoing striped bass research. Since 2018, 35 fish have each had a transmitter placed in their peritoneal cavity. The fish leave Eel Pond in the fall and some return the following spring. Students observed a demonstration of how transmitter information is detected by a receiver and then how the data on the receiver is offloaded to a computer for analysis. The group then went to the MBL dock to “greet” and feed the first group of striped bass that have returned to Eel Pond this spring. At least two fish tagged in fall 2021 have returned and more are expected to return by mid-June.
2. Other
MBL booth at The Massachusetts Marine Educators conference.
The Massachusetts Marine Educators held their 43rd annual meeting and conference in Woods Hole at the Quissett Campus of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on May 6, 2023. The conference is a gathering of teachers from throughout Massachusetts who teach a specific course in marine science or are interested in incorporating marine science into their curriculum. Scott Bennett attended the meeting and presented ongoing education and research programs that are part the Striped Bass Magic initiative at the Marine Biological Laboratory. He demonstrated technology associated with detection of striped bass and how this technology is being used to study times of arrival and departure of striped bass as well as determination of fish position in Eel Pond, Woods Hole, MA. He provided information on opportunities for high school students to join Striped Bass Magic program as summer research interns.
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