Marine Biology Classes Have A Day At The Beach
Clark Public Schools
Students in Louis Van Bergen’s Marine Biology classes at Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark spent a day at Sandy Hook conducting marine field studies. The students had learned in class and then put their knowledge into practice in the field.
On the day of the field trip, students studied three areas of Sandy Hook, the beach, the dunes, and the salt marsh. The class visited the ocean beach first. While at the beach they conducted a transect to map the profile of the beach. They did a current experiment and ran tests to determine the water quality.
The next stop was a hike through the dunes. Along the hike they viewed the native plants in the different areas of the dunes. They were surprised to see a herd of deer in the maritime forest. The walk back along the beach yielded a multitude of shells.
After a quick stop for lunch, they made their way to the salt marsh. In the salt marsh, they once again checked the water quality. The trip’s highlight was the sampling of organisms by seining, dip netting through the marsh, and sieving shovelfuls of sand. The class came back with buckets full of fish, crabs, and snails for the tanks in the classroom.
Photos by Clark Public Schools
