Port Aransas

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Every year a lucky group of O.Henry Middle School students take a trip to Port Aransas' Marine Science Institute (MSI) to learn about marine biology.  This year the 6th grade science department took 6th graders went on a 3 day, 2 night trip to the Marine Science Institute, which is run by the University of Texas.  Students explored jetty life  by observing and searching for living things clinging to life along the jetty. They explored MSI's Wetland Education Center, where they looked at oyster colonies using viewing tubes and did a scavenger hunt for the various niches that marine organisms lived in.  Students also took a trip on a boat, trolling the ocean for sea life and learning about all the various organisms that live in the ocean and how they interact with each other.  Students created posters showing what they learned, wrote poems about their experiences, and had fun at the beach (which many students had never been to before). At night students learned about the constellations and star gazed with star maps.

Above left: Students from the 2009 trip run into the ocean when we arrive! Many students had never seen the ocean before.  Above right: students from the 2010 trip check out sea life as we await our boat to arrive.