Island students take part in squid dissection program
Seventh-graders at The Sanibel School recently got to explore the physiology of squids in a hands-on dissection, which was led and taught by marine science educators from the Sanibel Sea School.
The Sanibel Sea School reported that the squid dissection program is designed to be a lab-based exercise that examines the external and internal morphology of squids. Its educators worked with the island school’s teachers to model the program based on the standards for seventh-graders.
“The hands-on approach of dissection allows students to see, touch and explore the various organs,” Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Youth Education Director Shannon Rivard said. “Seeing organs and understanding how they work within a single animal with strengthen students’ comprehension of biological systems.”
The students learned about the classification of mollusks and then worked in teams, following the directions of the educators, to systematically dissect thawed shortfin and market squids and to explore the adaptations that they have for survival in the marine environment.
Squids are invertebrates, meaning they lack a true backbone, in the phylum Mollusca, which includes a variety of organisms including clams, snails and limpets. They are in the class Cephalopoda — which translates to “head foot” — along with octopus, cuttlefish and nautilus.
The Sanibel Sea School reported that through the dissection of a sustainably harvested squid, the students observed how form fits function in cephalopod anatomy and learned about adaptations that help squids act as both predator and prey.
Part of the SCCF family, the Sanibel Sea School’s mission is to improve the ocean’s future one person at a time.